


The General and The Director

by bjfic_archivist



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-05-30
Updated: 2004-05-30
Packaged: 2018-12-27 12:26:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12081042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bjfic_archivist/pseuds/bjfic_archivist
Summary: I have tweaked the segments of this story so I'm reposting them.  The Basic story is the same just some cosmetic changes.(g)While this is a Science Fiction Alternate Universe I would say at least 80 % of the SF elements happen in the first segment.This story splits from canon in 122 and tells the story of Brian and Justin torn apart from each other through no fault of their own.The first segment sets up the situation.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

The following is an excerpt from the High School textbook Earth History, published in 2100.

* * *

May 18 2001

The slavers came from space. 

The world as everyone had known it was changed forever. For some more than others.

Several days after the raid astronomers were able to check the recordings from telescopes that happened to be viewing the proper sections of the sky. The recordings showed a red blossom in a black background, there were 12 such blossoms in all. From the center of each blossom alien ships appeared. From each blossom came a large ship surrounded by 12 small ships. Each squadron of ships entered the atmosphere separately and raided a different city located directly beneath the blossom. The cities raided seemed to have been chosen randomly, at least from the human point of view.

Some of the slavers met less defensive actions and raided more than one site in the city they had attacked. Others met stiff resistance and were limited to the first site in the city before they fled Earth’s atmosphere with their stolen cargo and disappeared into a green blossom. 

Of the 144 fighters; 42 were either destroyed in the fighting or damaged enough that they had to land. Military officials around the world were surprised at how easily so many of these ships were damaged. 

One of the slave ships, as they turned out to be, was captured, more or less intact. None of the aliens were captured alive; they either were killed in the fighting or killed themselves before they could be captured. 

8428 citizens of various Earth nations were stolen away into a life of slavery. This was the official number though some experts questioned its accuracy. Several thousand more people were killed in the fighting or during the raids by the slavers.

All of the captives stolen away from Earth were young men. Each of the large ships had landed near a site where large numbers of young people were congregated. While the 12 fighters remained in the air where they assumed defensive positions around the larger ship and fought off whatever attacks were thrown at the raiding party. 

Meanwhile aliens came out of the large ship and sealed off whatever site they had landed by and started capturing the young men. Any resistance was met with lethal force though very few of the killed were young men, the killed were either women or older men. 

None of the enslaved was over the age of 22 or under 14. None of the enslaved had obvious disabilities or were considered unattractive by the female at each raided site who was taken over by the aliens telepathically and used as a rude translator by the slavers. Most of these young women died within minutes of the removal of the telepathic link or were brain damaged after being assaulted in this manner. 

After the raid the number of enslaved and killed at each of the cities involved was determined though the numbers were more accurate in some cities than others. 

The twelve cites raided were: Venice Italy, Amman Jordan, Seoul Korea, Perth Australia, Nagano Japan, St Petersburg Russia, Manchester England, Nairobi Kenya, Durban South Africa, Lima Peru, Lincoln Nebraska and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the United States. 

Due to the varied military strengths of the countries involved the number of the fighters defeated varied wildly. None were defeated at Nairobi or Amman and both of those cities lost close to 1000 of their young men. The Americans destroyed 8 of the fighters at Pittsburgh and all 12 at Lincoln. 337 young men were stolen away in the Pittsburgh raid while none were lost at Lincoln because the slave ship was captured there. 

It was determined that, through sheer luck, three missiles hit the Lincoln ship almost at the same time at the same location on the ship which damaged the propulsion area of that ship. None of the other squadrons, of the raiders, made any attempt to help the ships at Lincoln and the Americans were able to throw a huge number of airplanes at the raid. All 12 fighters were eventually knocked down and the slave ship took so many hits that it started to crumple, the Aliens aboard the ship then killed themselves and the ship stopped fighting back.

Earth was stunned. Not only had the Universe proved that there were other intelligent species out there; those species were hostile. 

The people of Earth vowed revenge. Not only would such a raid never succeed again; the enslaved and the dead would be avenged.

The peoples of Earth slowly but surely became one, since most realized that only a unified planet could manage the effort needed to build the defenses necessary to protect the world from another such raid. The building of the offensive power to avenge the raid itself would take even more effort. 

The scientists of the world were able to use the captured slave ship and the remains of the destroyed fighters to figure out how to replicate how the aliens moved between star systems. It took decades and hundreds of lives to develop this material vital for the defense of the planet and for the effort to avenge the insult to the planet. 

The first squadrons ready to be sent out into the Universe to find the slavers were ready to be launched on the fiftieth anniversary of the raid. 

The two young women who survived being controlled mentally by the aliens provided tremendous aid as well since they retained some knowledge from the aliens that had been pushed into their minds. Both Donna of Manchester and Daphne of Pittsburgh became darlings of the planet before they died in their 30s from complications from their ordeals. 

Both were convinced that the aliens had stolen the young men in order to sell them to some alien organization known as the Legion. The young men were destined to be body slaves to the members of the Legion.


	2. The General and The Director

May 17 2051

Director’s Office  
Department of Planetary Security  
Lisbon Portugal

The Director was seated at his desk, allowing himself a moment of reflection. 

It had taken 50 years but his job was almost completed. Tomorrow the first 3 squadrons of Operation Revenge would launch. The countdown for the launch had started hours earlier but that was a formality; at noon Greenwich time the 18 one-man fighters organized into 3 squadrons would leave Earth’s atmosphere. 

Earth would finally start the process of paying the alien slavers back for the horrors of The Raid. More importantly than hurting the slavers, that had already been done 2 years before when the Horab attempted to raid Earth again, was finding out where the Legion was located. More than anything in his life the Director wanted to hurt the Legion for the pain that alien organization had caused him to suffer during the last 50 years.

Brian Kinney had been the Director of Planetary Defense for over 45 years. While Earth’s military was responsible for the nuts and bolts of the operation; they answered to Brian Kinney. The Director theoretically answered to the President of Earth but in reality he answered to no one. Two generations had been born and raised with revenge in their hearts. They would stand for nothing less than total revenge on the alien monsters that had defiled the planet on May 18 2001 and stolen 8428 young men into a life of slavery. Brian Kinney had become the focus point of the desire for revenge and he had used the power that gave him to make sure that no Earth government had reneged on their promise to avenge The Raid. 

The president of Earth knew full well what would happen if he openly opposed the Director on anything that had to do with The Raid.

Brian was one of the few still living that had a direct connection to the victims of The Raid. Though 50 years had passed he still loved Justin Taylor with all of his heart. He had done nothing in the past 50 years that didn’t promote the idea of gaining revenge for the loss of his lover and the others stolen that day. 

What had made it so horrible for Brian was that he had only admitted to himself that he loved Justin the night before The Raid. He then had less than an hour with his Justin before the disaster that split them up.

Brian had never believed that another man could love him let alone that he could love another man. Justin had wormed his way through the defenses of Brian’s heart in the eight and a half months he had known Brian before the event that tore them apart forever. Brian had fought tooth and nail to deny that he cared for Justin; then less than 24 hours after he finally was forced to admit the truth to himself Justin had been stolen from him. Taken by alien monsters to become a sexual slave to other alien monsters. 

Over the years many on Earth had given up on the victims of The Raid; the feeling was that they were all dead by now. While some had given up on the idea of rescuing the victims of The Raid very few had given up on the idea of gaining revenge on the Legion. 

Brian never believed that his Sunshine had died, not for a second had he ever believed that Justin was dead. He knew that he would know when that happened no matter how far away from him Justin was and he knew with every fiber of his being that when Justin died he would die too.

Michael Novotny, who had also known Justin before The Raid was in Brian‘s office. Michael and Brian had known each other for over 65 years and considered the other his best friend. That meant much more to Michael than it did to Brian, always had and always would.

“It’s finally here Mikey. The day that we start our march to revenge.”

“You mean the day we send 18 more young men to their deaths.”

“Death is a risk soldiers take when they sign up.”

“Brian you’ve used your advertising skills for the last 45 years to manipulate public opinion to support this desire for revenge. We can defend ourselves now; the annihilation of the Horab attack 2 years ago proves that. Why do we need to go out into space looking for trouble?”

“Mikey you’ve always been a disbeliever, why is that?”

“You’ve done all of this work, manipulating an entire planetary population’s opinion just to gain revenge for your twink that wouldn’t go away. You’re willing to risk the entire population of Earth just to gain revenge for losing somebody you think you were in love with.”

“Mikey, Mikey, will you ever learn? From the moment those ships attacked 12 Earth cities they were asking to be punished. If I hadn’t been the one to lead someone else would have. The Empire, the Horab, and most of all, the Legion, have to learn that Earth is not to be trifled with. 

The Military tell me that there is very little chance that these aliens can really harm the Earth now that we know about them and have developed N-Space drive ourselves. We may not be strong enough to destroy them either but we can certainly cause them a lot of damage. 

It was a good thing that a byproduct of the Horab’s ability to take over the minds of some humans, to use as translators during The Raid, was the implantation of knowledge into the humans’ minds. Daphne and Donna were able to give us a fair amount of information about the Empire and the Legion before they died. We have a reasonable idea on the location of the Empire so we stayed away from there during our development of N-Space drive. Our attack squadrons are not operating completely in the dark. When they return home, after their mission, we will know even more.”

“That’s assuming that they return home.”

“Not every pilot that tested N-Space returned home either but enough did that we were able to work out the kinks and now we have a whole fleet being built that can be used to protect Earth space, colonize new planets and attack the Empire when we locate it. I have confidence in the men manning the squadrons launching tomorrow to return with valuable knowledge about our enemies.”

“Does Gus know that you are risking the life of his son on this pipe dream of yours? Do you really believe that they will find your twink after all of these years and bring him back to you so you can live happily every after. Even if they did find him and brought him back he wouldn’t be the Justin you knew 50 years ago.”

“Taylor knows the risks he will be taking. Whether Gus knows or not I don’t know since we haven’t talked in 10 years. The day that Taylor enlisted, over his father’s objections, Gus stopped talking to me.”

“So you really are willing to risk the love of your son and the life of your grandson just to bring back some little blond twink who probably doesn’t even remember who you are?’

“Mikey you do know that insulting one of The Stolen could get you killed don’t you?”

“I’m 80 years old Brian, that isn’t much of a threat anymore.”

“Michael I would know if Justin were dead. I have to believe that or I would have died years ago.”

“For all of our sakes I hope you’re right.”

“Whether I am or I’m not doesn’t matter anymore; Operation Revenge starts tomorrow and nothing can stop it.”


	3. The General and The Director

Ninth Cycle of TinTay

Legionary Headquarters

 

The High General of the Legion is seated in his office when Colonel ThanMa, commander of his personal guard, rushes into the office.

“My Lord, a supply convoy has been attacked and destroyed.”

“What? Where? I thought that this planet was subjugated. What command unit has jurisdiction?”

“My Lord, it wasn’t on the planet. It was a convoy from our supply depot on Kandor. The convoy had only been in normal space for a few minutes when it was attacked.”

“Space? Who would attack an Imperial convoy in space? More importantly; how could a space convoy be destroyed?”

“My Lord, the attacking ships matched nothing in our data banks. They’re not from any Imperial planet.”

“Then where did they come from? Only Imperial planets have Inner Space drive.”

“They would have to be from an Unknown World, My Lord.”

“I suppose it’s better for the Empire that they are from the Unknown Worlds instead of a rebellion from an Empire planet. Though an attack from an Unknown World is going to cause us terrible problems. Still how did they destroy a convoy in space, I thought tradition says it’s impossible to have an effective battle in space?”

“It’s not impossible my Lord just very unlikely. Speeds are too slow and the distances too great to allow ship-to-ship combat before the weaker ship can go to Inner Space to escape the battle. The attackers came out of Inner Space almost on top of the convoy; they were so close to our ships that they destroyed them before ours could jump to Inner Space for safety. It was sheer luck on the part of the attackers that their opening from Inner Space was so close to the convoy.”

“How many ships were destroyed? Were the supplies critical to our position here?”

“My Lord, 27 of 30 transports were lost, 1 of the 2 escort ships was lost as well. Since they are unarmed I don’t know why they are called escort ships? The supplies were not critical and can be easily replaced.”

“28 of 32 ships destroyed, when has the Empire suffered such a loss? 

Colonel ThanMa, they are called escort ships because of tradition; a Legionary of your rank should know that. Should I have you retested for your rank level?”

“No My Lord, I spoke in haste. My Lord we did capture one of the raiders.”

“You tell me this now? How did we capture an armed raider when none of our ships were capable of fighting?”

“Sheer luck my Lord, when one of the transports exploded the debris damaged the raider’s propulsion unit. He was unable to jump to Inner Space when the others fled. Our surviving escort ship took him under tow. He was taken to the rebirth center at Cattorah. The levy Doctors don‘t think he was harmed in the explosion that crippled his ship.”

“How many ships attacked the convoy?”

“My Lord, the raiding party consisted of 6 one man fighters.”

“Have the prisoner brought to the council chamber as soon as possible. Make sure that the translator device is implanted in him and that it is made fluent in Galachh only.”

“Yes My Lord. The translator device may not be necessary.”

“What do you mean?”

“My Lord, the levy Doctors, who examined the prisoner, sent word that they think the prisoner is of the race of the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“That’s impossible; Dirt wasn’t capable of Inner Space travel when we were captured for the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“Yes My Lord, any further orders?”

“Send my duty officer to me.”

“Yes My Lord.”


	4. The General and The Director

The Ninth Cycle of TinTay

The Grand Council of the Legion was waiting for the appearance of the High General. When TinTay entered the room the council members rose as one. They sat down as soon as the High General had assumed his throne. Through long tradition the High General of the Legion was also the second highest-ranking Lord of the Empire, second only to the Emperor. During the history of the Legion only 1 High General had attempted to overthrow the Emperor and he had been executed by the Grand Council when his plans were uncovered.

TinTay opened the meeting with a declaration that no member of the Grand Council had ever expected to hear at a meeting of the group.

“Legionarys, we are fucked, and not in the pleasurable manner. 

An Unknown World has developed Inner Space travel on its own. Not only have they done that they have built ships capable of fighting in space. 

Through luck or design they entered normal space on top of a convoy and destroyed 28 of the 32 ships before they went back into Inner Space. 

I’ve checked the data banks and there are only 10 ships in the entire Imperial Navy that are equipped with weapons that can be used in space. They’re 10 of the oldest ships in the fleet and haven’t been used in hundreds of cycles. While they have been maintained over the cycles the Navy has no idea if they can actually operate anymore; as to their combat ability it’s anyone‘s guess. The Navy ‘s really nothing more than a transport service; they haven’t had to fight in hundreds of cycles so they let their abilities slide.

I’ve sent word to the Emperor that I’ll come to Orkon as soon as I possibly can to discuss this situation. I’ve called this meeting to inform you of what I know at this point in time. 

We’ll need to find out whether the success of the attack on the convoy was by luck or design. Only 6 one-man fighters made the attack yet they carved up our ships like a hot knife through butter. If any other ships were attacked we should learn soon, the levy generals on the Empire planets would know to send word to us of such an attack. But just to be safe I’ve sent messenger ships to the regional capitals to find out if anything of other attacks is known.

We have had one bit of good luck; one of the attacking ships was damaged by the explosion of one of our ships and was captured by the surviving escort ship. The pilot will be brought here tomorrow. I’ve given orders that he be implanted with a translation device and that it be made fluent in Galachh only. During my interview with him only speak in Galachh.”

“My Lord, why only Galachh?”

“General ToPher, the levy Doctors are sure that this prisoner is of the same race as the members of the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“How could that be possible?”

“I don’t know ToPher. We’ll try to find out when the pilot is in our presence. We need to find out why they attacked us as well. If he’s of the same race as the second rebirth of Gkolath I want to be able to use it to our advantage so only speak in Galachh. If he’s of the same race we’ll deal with it for the benefit of the Legion and Empire. 

Caldor check the records and see if anything like this has ever happened before. I don’t remember any Unknown World gaining the ability to threaten the Empire but I could be forgetting some vague event from the far past. 

If these people truly have the ability to jump from Inner Space to specific points in normal space then the Empire’s existence is threatened. While The Legion and the levy armies can protect the planets themselves, from any practical threat. We simply can’t do anything to protect our supply lines and interplanetary connections if they can determine where ships are located in normal space, while they are still in Inner Space, and then jump to that site directly. 

Formov check the records and see if we can build, and put into orbit, fighting satellites. 

Recall the Legion here; bring every member to Reborah as quickly as possible. Any comments? 

Then we will meet again tomorrow when the prisoner is here. I will be the only one to speak directly to the prisoner but if you think it will help unnerve him make comments to each other that he will be able to hear.”

“General ToPher come with me, we need to talk alone.”

With that dismissal the council members take their leave murmuring to each other as they walk out. High General TinTay and General ToPher walk arm in arm to the private quarters of TinTay.

“My Lord what’ll we do if it’s true and these attackers are from Dirt.”

“Tophy, I‘ve had your legs on my shoulders and my legs on your shoulders too often for you to be so formal with me in my living quarters.”

“Tinny do you ever remember your life before we were taken into the Legion? I try to remember some times but I can barely remember anything. It has been over 60 cycles since the Horab captured us. 

I remember the first night that I spent in your quarters like it was yesterday. You had just been born a Legionary, the first of our rebirth, and had requested me to be the first baby you would sponsor. You took my anal cherry that night and let me fuck you. My previous sponsors, 3 born siblings, from the first rebirth of Gkolath didn’t partake in anal sex, which was why I was still a virgin anally. I have loved you more than any other Legionary since that night. 

Those of us of the second rebirth of Gkolath, still alive, have been very successful in the cycles we have been of The Legion. Too many of us died during the horrible reign of Horem though. I sometimes think that he sent members of our rebirth on especially difficult and poorly designed missions simply to kill us off. If these raiders are truly from Dirt what will happen to The Legion? What will happen to us of the second rebirth of Gkolath?”

“The Legion will survive, Tophy can you imagine not doing your duty to The Legion and Empire simply because our enemy is Dirt. I only vaguely remember my life on Dirt so if our enemies are from that planet it won‘t affect my fulfilling my duties to the Legion. I think that your thoughts about Horem are probably correct. 

I remember that first night with you as clearly as you do. I wanted you to be the first baby I sponsored for many reasons but the main one was because you remind me of Brian. Not that you look like him or act like him or anything like that but because you were the first familiar face I saw when I woke up after I was knocked out by the Horab when I resisted being taken away from Brian. I see your face and it reminds me of his face. 

I love you Tophy and I love and loved many other Legionarys I have known during the cycles I’ve been of The Legion. but I was in love with Brian. I don’t remember much about my life on Dirt, it has been so long and we have done so many things since were captured but I do remember that Brian loved me. He finally was able to tell me that he loved me and then we were torn apart.

I’m the High General of The Legion and I’ll do what is right for The Legion and The Empire even if that means conquering Dirt.”

“Is that even possible?”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that Tophy because truth be told I don’t think that we could conquer them, destroy the planet and ourselves we could probably manage. Destroying a planet and The Legion is not good for the Empire. Maybe we’ll be lucky and the raiders won’t be from Dirt.”

“We can hope Tinny, we can hope. My Lord General TinTay I have a formal request.”

“Yes General ToPher, what is your formal request of the High General of The Legion?”

“Please fuck me for old times sakes before we have to deal with the possibility of destroying our birth planet and ourselves.”

“Since you asked formally I will grant your request, get your ass over here so I can ravage it, like only a Legionary can ravage a male ass.”


	5. The General and The Director

May 17 2051

Iberian Spaceport  
Lisbon Portugal

 

Brian Kinney, Director of Planetary Defense, is addressing the 18 fighter pilots who’ll be taking part in the opening gambit of Operation Revenge. While the Director is 80 years old he could easily pass for 15 years younger.

“Gentlemen, I’m not worried that you’ll do your duty to Earth in the next few days. My only fear is that some of you won’t return home. Yet all of you knew the risks when you joined Space Force and even more so when you volunteered for this operation. 

Your assignment is to find out as much as you can about the Empire, and the Legion. In this early part of Operation Revenge information about our sworn enemy is more important than damage that you can give them, we’ve time to hurt them, and so if the choice is coming home with valuable information or causing damage but not coming home then you are commanded to come home. 

The Battle Cruisers will be ready for active duty in a few months; so your real mission is to find targets for them instead of fighting yourselves. That being said if you see an opportunity to bloody the nose of the fucking Legion then you have my permission to bloody their nose and any other body parts you can.

Even if you don’t find anything concrete that will help in our further operations. Since it is just as important to know where they aren‘t located as it is to know where they are located. 

We’re hoping that our locator devices will enable you to know if there are ships in a stellar system while you are still in N-space. Random jumps into stellar systems will never be of any use. We know that the devices can find our ships from N-space, so make sure if there is any chance of your ship being captured that you destroy the device. The engineers assure me that the locators are wired so that the destruction of them will not harm your ship in any other way.

Remember to seed the beacons both in normal and N-space in any system that you believe is worth being able to find again. Each of your ships has several hundred of these beacons so don’t worry about using them. 

Above all, look for signs of the Legion; you know what we think are the symbols of that fucking organization. Empire planets are important but the Legion is what Earth really wants revenge against. The Legion paid the Horab to steal our citizens and it must pay for that. 

We think that the Legion is just an elite organization of the Empire’s military though it’s possible that it’s the name for the entire military organization. Finding out which situation is true would be very helpful in making our future plans. I’m not sure how you would be able to determine that from space, especially since we can’t read or speak their languages but just observe whatever you come across. 

Any Questions? None?

Squadrons dismissed and good luck for your hunt. The good wishes of the people of Earth go with you.”

***

“Major Peterson may I have a word in private?”

“Of course Director Kinney, how may I help you?

“We’re in private Taylor, I don’t think you have to be quite so formal with me. I did change your diapers at times.”

“That is not how Grandma Mel told it Grandfather.”

“I’m sure I intended to change them.”

“From what Grandma Mel told me you probably had Mikey do it for you.”

“Do you think that your Grandma Mel didn’t like me?”

“Grandfather I think that is one of the most profound things I’ve ever heard you say.”

“Taylor I could still get you out of this assignment.”

“If you ever want to speak to me again Grandfather you’ll do no such thing. 

I am an officer in the Space Force of Earth, I am qualified for this assignment and I’ll do my duty. 

I’ll do my part to help in the implementation of Operation Revenge. The Stolen will have Revenge done in their name. The Legion shall pay dearly for buying our young men. The Horab will be utterly destroyed for daring to steal citizens of Earth.”

“Taylor I knew all of those sayings, long before you were born, I wrote them after all, how do you really feel about this.”

“Grandfather, I’m elated and I’m afraid. I’ll do my duty and if at all possible I’ll avenge The Stolen by destroying anything I find that is connected to the Legion.”

“Taylor have you spoken to your father recently?”

“Last night before the countdown began, and I could still call off base, I talked to Mom and Dad for over an hour. I gave them the information necessary to get my sperm sample out of storage in case something happens to me and they want to keep the family line going. Since that is the only way I’m ever going to have a child they might want to do it even if I do come back.”

“Is your father truly OK with your sexuality?”

“Wasn’t yours and weren’t you OK with Dad’s?

“Taylor I keep forgetting how different the world has become since The Raid. I didn’t tell my father that I was gay until a few months before his death and he didn’t take it well. Of course he never took my mere existence well. I’ve always been happy with how your father has lived his life. He hasn’t been happy with how I’ve lived mine though.”

“Grandfather he just could never get over the fact that you loved Justin more than him. It hurt him that he wasn’t enough for you. If he’d known Justin it might have been easier for him to know that you loved someone else. He missed having a father during the years he was growing up. 

The fact that you dedicated your life to The Department of Planetary Defense didn’t help either he just saw that as more evidence that you loved Justin more than him. 

Then the family was never your biggest supporter either to me or to Dad. Dad listened to them more than I ever did. By the time I got old enough to really know what was going on they were too old and tired to make as much trouble as they did when Dad was growing up and missing his Daddy.”

“I wish that things could’ve been different between me and Gus but he was only 6 when I became Director and I simply didn’t have as much time to spend with him as I would’ve liked. I should’ve done a better job with him but I didn’t know how. The first 5 years after The Raid was a terrible time for me. I had finally admitted to myself that I could love and be loved and then the love of my life was stolen away. The worst part was that I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Grandfather I’ve heard the stories about you and Justin. Everyone in the family knew that you loved Justin, why didn’t you know? No one in the family was surprised when your answer to The Raid was to trick and drug even more than usual. What surprised them was when you became the Director of Planetary Defense and became the most hard hearted of the revenge seekers.”

“Looking back I realized that I fell in love with Justin the night I met him, the night your father was born. I wouldn’t admit it to myself because I was so afraid that once I let him into my heart he would walk away from me. 

Fifty years ago tonight I did something incredibly stupid, luckily it turned out well since Mikey got upset, because I didn’t come to his going away party, and came to my home to find out why I missed his party. In his stumbling around way he made me realize that I could love Justin and that Justin truly loved me. 

I made all kinds of plans for our lives after that eye opening moment with Mikey. I finally admitted to myself that I loved Justin; I went to his Prom, danced with him, kissed him in front of everyone there and had the most romantic hour of my life. Then the fucking Horab picked Pittsburgh out of a hat and raided the St James Prom and stole Justin away from me.”

“Grandfather you don’t have to tell me this.”

“Yes Taylor I do, it’s time I told someone. I was always a bastard to those around me, especially those who cared about me, but after The Raid I really went to new extremes. 

I tried to convince myself that I had been wrong about loving Justin, if I truly loved him then how could the Universe steal him away from me? So like the fool I was I started tricking even more than usual, which considering my usual was a lot of men. But no matter whom I fucked, whether in a bed or a backroom, I always ended up seeing Justin. The guy could have been 7 foot tall with black hair down to his ass, purple eyes and fat as a hog and I would wake up to see a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed twink. 

I finally admitted to myself after a couple of years of this that I wasn’t solving anything by doing what I was doing. I straightened up my life, gave up my chemical vices and started working for something important. The desire for revenge had been great from the day after The Raid but it had no focus and was starting to waver. Using my advertising skills and calling in some favors I had myself appointed the Director of Planetary Defense. It wasn’t as powerful a position as it is now, and truth be told was never intended to be as powerful as I’ve made the position. The politicians should have known better than to appoint an adman as good as I was to a position with so much potential and with so many loopholes in the way they set up the department. I worked very hard to get to the point where I had as much power as I have. 

Earth no longer has to fear being raided by space monsters; due to my hard work and organizational skills. I worked even harder to develop the ability to attack the space monsters that decided that we were fair game to be bought and sold for their nefarious purposes. I’ll admit that underneath my desire for revenge is the hope that I can get my Sunshine back.”

“Grandfather you have my word that we’ll do everything possible to find the Legion, hurt it as much as possible and find out anything we can about The Stolen.”

“Just follow your orders Taylor, don’t let personal concerns get in the way. If it’s meant for Justin and me to be together then we’ll be together. 

I let my personal desires to get Justin back ruin my relationship with your father. By the time he was old enough to really know what having a father in his life meant I had become Director and all of my energy was directed into developing the ability to get to where we’re today. 

I knew that he resented me for not being there for him but I simply didn’t know how to do both. I had to get Justin back; Gus would always be there was my thinking. Of course he wasn’t always there.

I managed to find the time to be at some of his major life points but not all. I was there for his marriage to your mother but not for your birth. Times had changed enough and I had developed a strong enough staff, so that I could delegate responsibility, so that I could spend more time with you while you grew up. That was another bone your father has with me. 

Then you joined Space Force against his will and he hasn’t spoken to me since.”

“I’m sorry about that Grandfather, I knew how much he didn’t want me to join but I simply had no choice, it was the right thing for me to do just like going out into the Universe tomorrow is the right thing for me to do.”

“Taylor do you know what is interesting about my continued fantasies about Justin?”

“Since I had no idea that you have fantasies about Justin; no I don‘t know what is interesting about them.”

“I’ve never been able to have sex with anyone else in the 50 years since The Raid without that guy looking like Justin in my mind’s eye; yet somehow the Justin I dream up has aged right along with me. When I see Justin in my bed he’s no longer a beautiful blond haired blue-eyed twink but a handsome gray haired blue eyed man. I love him more today than I did yesterday and I know how silly that sounds since I haven’t even seen him in person in 50 years. 

I have to believe that if you were to bring him home to me, no matter what has happened to him in the last 50 years, we would be right in sync with each other like nothing had happened. 

Thank you for listening to an old man Taylor.”

“No problem Grandfather. Don’t worry we’ll find out what happened to The Stolen and bring any of them left alive home.”

“Thank you Major Peterson, may your mission be as successful as is humanly possible.


	6. The General and The Director

The Ninth Cycle of TinTay

TinTay, who once was known as Justin Taylor, legionary of The Legion of the Orkon Empire, was in deep thought. While TinTay’s hair was no longer as blond as when he was younger, since it was mixed with gray, his eyes were still a bright blue that almost glowed.

Recent events had shaken The Legion to its core. A supply convoy of The Legion had been attacked and destroyed. The attack that had shaken The Legion had happened in space. According to long held views fighting in space was impractical due to speed and distance issues. Due to this traditional belief very few ships in the Orkon Navy actually had weaponry that could be used in space and those few were very old. 

Added to the fact of space combat was the fact that the attackers came from an Unknown World. There was also the possibility that these aliens were capable of locating ships in normal space while they were still in Inner Space. Even more dangerous was the idea that they could control their jumping from Inner Space to a specific point in normal space. As long as the Empire had Inner Space drive it had never been able to develop precise jumping back to normal space.

The High General of The Legion had called for the entire Legion to come to Reborah. In addition all surviving members of the second rebirth of Gkolath were to gather for a conference to be held in the council chamber of the High General. The High General was encamped in Reborah now that the planet Hakim had been conquered and added to the Empire. 

TinTay, as a member of the second rebirth of Gkolath, was waiting for the beginning of the conference. Only 276 members of second rebirth of Gkolath were still alive but they were spread all over the planet of Hakim and it would take several days for all of them to arrive in Reborah. 

While TinTay waited he began to remember his life since he became a member of the second rebirth of Gkolath, which led to his birth as a Legionary less than a cycle later. Justin had been the first member of his rebirth to pass the tests and to be born a Legionary and to receive his new name of TinTay.

TinTay had lost track of how many cycles he had been of The Legion and seldom remembered his life as Justin. The only memory he held onto from his life before the rebirth was his undying love for Brian Kinney and that Brian had finally admitted to himself, and to Justin, that he loved him the night that he had been stolen from his birth planet by the Horab. 

He only vaguely remembered how many planets he had helped bring into the Empire. He had been very successful in his career and had risen high in the ranks of The Legion very quickly. 

He had been the sponsor of hundreds of babies during the cycles he had been a Legionary though he usually only sponsored a baby for the short period of time necessary to train him in some specific part of Legionary lore. He had also had many lovers among the other Legionarys. Members of the second rebirth of Gkolath had a reputation for choosing lovers amongst themselves at a higher rate than was usual for The Legion.

Like all Legionarys TinTay had passed through the traditional stages of a rebirth. He became a zygote when the Horab had captured him on his birth planet. 

The Horab were the only non-humanoid members of the Empire and were one of the few non-humanoid aliens that had ever been discovered during the history of the Empire. Other than the original planet of Orkon, the Horab were the only members of the Empire who hadn’t been conquered first. The Horab had willingly allied with the Empire. Technically the Horab weren’t members of the Empire but still just allies, but for all practical purposes the Horab were a member of the Empire.

The Horab had delivered their captives to The Legion on Voltt, which The Legion had recently conquered. The fighting had been very intense and casualties among The Legion had been very high which is what had led High General Gkolath to call for a rebirth, the second of his reign. At The Legion rebirth center the embryos were judged to see if they fit the requirements of The Legion. 

During the raids that had captured the zygotes the Horab had performed a rough selection of their captives. Only young males between the ages of 14 and 21 planetary cycles had been taken, any obvious disabilities and deformities had been used by the Horab to prevent obvious failures of the rebirthing process being brought to Voltt. The Horab were only paid for the number of zygotes that passed and became embryos so it was in their interest to only bring zygotes that had a good chance of becoming embryos. Over the centuries that the Horab had been involved in rebirths of The Legion they had become very good at knowing what The Legion required. 

At the rebirth center the zygotes were given physical examinations by levy Doctors. Any embryos with congenital defects, serious illnesses, or sexual inadequacies were aborted from the rebirth process. 

According to tradition the aborted zygotes were taken, by the Horab, to the nearest Empire planet and sold as physical laborers. Of the 8034 zygotes captured in the raid, which had made it to the rebirth center only 102 were aborted. Several hundred other zygotes had died during the trip to Voltt. The Horab received compensation for the 7932 embryos that became the second rebirth of Gkolath. 

When a zygote became an embryo his clothing was taken away by levy soldiers and levy Doctors implanted the translation device into the ear canal of the embryo. The embryos remained naked until the day they became a baby. Within a few days the devices became fluent in every language that the embryos spoke amongst themselves. 

The levy Doctors were amazed at the number of languages spoken by this group of embryos, historically there were no more than 3 or 4 languages in a class of embryos. Cycles later historians of The Legion decided that this was the first indication of the uniqueness of the second rebirth of Gkolath. 

The translation devices allowed the Empire to work since any and every citizen could speak to any other citizen regardless of whether they spoke the same native language. The device translated what it heard into whatever language the person wearing the device understood. So while a person heard an unintelligible noise their brain understood the meaning of that noise. Translation devices had to be trained in order to work so anytime a person met someone who spoke a new language, to the device, it took a few days before fluency was managed but the devices never forgot a language no matter how many cycles might pass between use of a language. Most Legionarys became fluent in many of the native languages spoken by other Legionarys and didn‘t rely on the translation device to talk to each other since the device didn‘t work if the person understood the language being spoken.

Within days all of the embryos, of the second rebirth of Gkolath, could understand each other and the levy soldiers, at the rebirth center, started circulating among the embryos so that the devices could begin the process of becoming fluent in Galachh. Following tradition the levy soldiers only spoke in Galachh when in the presence of the embryos. The levy soldiers were very careful to avoid touching the naked embryos in any way. 

The next step in the rebirth began when the embryos were able to understand Galachh. The embryos learned the history of the Empire and The Legion. They began to learn how to use the teaching devices as well. They began to learn the traditions of The Legion and to determine for themselves if they could follow those traditions. 

Once an embryo felt that he was ready he could take the birthing test. An embryo was never forced to take the test but could stay an embryo only until the next rebirth. Any remaining embryos at the time of a new rebirth were finally judged as defective and destroyed by the levy soldiers assigned to the rebirth center. 

All members of the second rebirth of Gkolath passed to the baby stage within a half cycle, which was a record time in the history of The Legion. Justin had been the first member of the rebirth to become a baby of The Legion.

According to Imperial law The Legion could have a maximum of 10,000 legionarys and 20,000 embryos and babies. Since a baby could only become a legionary when he passed the tests and there was an opening there was no time limit on how long a baby could remain at that stage. 

In the long history of The Legion there were babies that died of old age who never passed the birthing tests. There were also those babies that had passed the tests yet remained babies because there were no openings available for them in The Legion. The most extreme example was Urolthy of the 5th rebirth of Jame who went from baby to High General in one day. He had passed every test required for every rank of The Legion but since the Emperor of the time had stopped expansion of the Empire there had been no openings in The Legion. Urolthy had been a genius and passed the tests at a rapid rate, but then as a baby he had nothing to do but study and care for his Legionary sponsors. 

Urolthy was one of the most successful of the long line of High Generals; during his reign The Legion captured 10 planets for the Empire and only had to be reborn 3 times. 

Forvac of the 1st rebirth of Kennet had been the worst High General in the history of The Legion. There were 6 rebirths during his time as High General, and yet he died before the only planet that he tried to capture became part of the Empire. Forvac became a curse word among the levy soldiers since his reign cost the levy armies’ uncountable losses in addition to the thousands of Legionarys that died due to his inept decisions. 

Legionarys sponsored babies, depending on the number of active Legionarys a baby would usually be claimed within days of birth but some babies were never claimed or waited cycles before being claimed. Legionarys with no baby had first claim to any new baby that was born. A sponsor had to teach his baby everything he could possibly teach the baby about the workings of The Legion. The baby took care of every need that his sponsor requested but he always had the right to refuse to do anything he was uncomfortable doing. 

Since Legionarys varied in their knowledge and abilities they seldom retained sponsorship of a baby until the baby passed the tests and was born a Legionary. Since the whole process of the rebirth was for the survival of The Legion, Generals had the right to remove a baby from the sponsorship of a Legionary if they felt that an infatuation had developed and the Legionary wasn’t doing what was best for the education and training of the baby. 

Very few babies had the abilities to pass the tests without learning from several sponsors. Justin had been one of those few and had passed the test to become a Legionary after only two sponsors; both of his sponsors had been high ranking in The Legion.

The day after TinTay was born a Legionary he sponsored his first baby, Christopher Hobbs.


	7. The General and The Director

The Ninth Cycle of TinTay

Legionary Headquarters  
Reborah on Hakim

The Grand Council Chamber of The Legion has been prepared for the interview of the prisoner. High General TinTay is seated on his throne. The 12 Council members are seated in chairs arranged evenly on both sides of the chamber. At every space between council members stands a levy soldier, part of the honor guard. 

The honor guard has at least one member from each Imperial race presently on Hakim. Since Hakim had only been recently conquered there was a larger mixture of races than is usual on Empire planets since the levy troops hadn‘t been sent home yet. The array of humanoid types was large both among the levy soldiers and the Legionarys present; though six of the Legionarys were obviously of a single race. The men were very tall to very short, skin tones ranged across the spectrum, the amount of body hair varied wildly as well.

“My Lord General are you ready for the prisoner?”

“Bring him in guard captain.”

The doors are opened and the prisoner is marched into the chamber by two hulking guards who hold the prisoner by his arms. There are gasps as the Legionarys take in the appearance of the prisoner. The young man stands proudly before the High General. The prisoner looks around the room to take in everything he can see.

One of the guards reaches up and grabs the back of the head of the prisoner. “Eyes forward Prisoner.”

High General TinTay is speechless; this young man is the spitting image of the love of his life. Any doubt about whether the attackers came from Dirt left him as he took in the sight of a tall, hazel eyed, brown haired beauty standing in from of him. 

“My Lord General may I have a word in private?”

“Approach General ToPher, what is the problem?”

“Tinny you are staring at him like a love struck newborn Legionary. He is beautiful but not that beautiful. If you don’t gain control of yourself you’ll lose control of this interrogation. No one of The Legion will say anything if you take him to your bed tonight. There’s plenty of precedent for that in the history of The Legion. ”

“Thank you Tophy, he looks just like Brian did the night I first met him. They’re from Dirt; there’s no question about it. I’ll ask him the obvious question and then I’ll dismiss the council and meet with the prisoner in a more intimate room. You’ll have to make sure that I don’t ruin the interrogation Tophy. While tradition may allow me to take him to my bed there is no way that I would force anyone. I’ve my doubts that this youngster would willingly sleep with me.”

“Yes My Lord General.”

“Prisoner is your translator device working? Do you understand what I’m asking?“

“Yes High General I understand your questions.”

“Then know that all of us have a translator device implanted in our ears as well. They’ve been trained to understand your language. So speak clearly so that all will understand your answers. I have many questions for you but first I must ask how old you are in your planet’s years?”

“What? Of all the questions I’ve prepared for I certainly never expected that one.”

The two guards force the prisoner to his knees for his impertinent answer to the High General.”

“Soldiers I grant this prisoner leeway in how he responds to my questions, he has no knowledge of our traditions. He’s too beautiful for you to bruise unnecessarily.”

“Why do you want to know how old I am?”

“Give me the answer and then I’ll explain, but it’s important for me to know your age before I decide what to do with you.”

“I still don’t understand but I am 29 years-old.”

“Abort.”

“Abort, what the fuck does that mean?”

“It means that you are not eligible to become part of the first rebirth of TinTay. My officers can now listen to what you say instead of planning on how to claim you when you become a baby of The Legion. Of course none of my officers would choose the favors of a beautiful baby over the honor of The Legion.”

“That still makes no sense.”

“You are a prisoner of The Legion?”

“Yes, I can’t deny that.”

“You are a very beautiful young man; we of The Legion are attracted to beautiful young men. I asked your age because if you had been young enough you would have qualified to join the first rebirth of TinTay, which is still in progress. This would lead to you being born a Legionary and becoming one of us. But you’re too old and thus are judged an abort. My council can now stop thinking about how handsome you are and start thinking about your answers to my questions.”

“My Lord General, it’s time.”

“Thank you General ToPher. This meeting is adjourned. We’ll meet again tomorrow at the same time. Guards take the Prisoner back to his cell. ”

“Yes My Lord General, on your feet Prisoner.”

Two hours later General ToPher and High General TinTay enter the cell of the Prisoner.

“Prisoner it’s time for you to answer my questions.”

“I’ve a question for you first High General.”

General ToPher slowly walks to the prisoner and punches him in the stomach.

“Prisoner, and that is the operative word, you’re here to answer questions not ask them.”

“ToPher that wasn’t necessary. Prisoner I’ll grant your request but as you can tell my companion doesn’t have the greatest amount of patience among my officers. What do you want to know?”

“Are you one of The Stolen?”

“I don’t know what you mean Prisoner.”

“The Stolen is what we call those that were captured by the Horab and sold to the Legion. Are you one of them? You and many of your officers look human to me. How can that be though, if The Legion bought you to be slaves how can you now be high ranking members of that accursed organization?”

“How do you know anything of the Horab, the Empire or The Legion?”

“During The Raid the alien monsters took over the minds of women at each raiding site, these women were used as rude translators so that the Horab could order my people to do what was required of them. Most of the women died or were brain damaged by the process but two, Donna and Daphne. . .”

“Daphne?” muttered the High General.

“What High General?”

“Go on with your tale Prisoner.”

“Daphne and Donna had information from the Horab, that possessed them, put into their brains; it’s supposed by our experts that this information transfer was a byproduct of the possession. Over the years, before they died, they were debriefed and the knowledge gained from them helped in developing our plans for Operation Revenge. 

So we know that the non-humanoid aliens that raided Earth were the Horab. That they took our young men to sell to the Legion to be used as sexual slaves. 

Our experts aren’t sure whether the Legion is the elite military unit of the Empire or the entire military of the Empire. I ask again are you one of The Stolen?”

“I don’t know if we are what you call The Stolen because most of us don’t remember where we came from before we became of The Legion. Every Legionary in the history of the Legion was captured from some Unknown World and brought to a rebirth center where he eventually was born into the Legion. 

Our ranks are earned through our accomplishments and skills. I became High General when Valdof died because I scored highest on the tests for the rank. If I died today General ToPher would take my place since he has the highest scores of those who have passed the tests. 

You’re right in your observation that many of the officers at the Council Meeting today are of the same race but we would express it as being of the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“That doesn’t answer my question General.”

“I vaguely remember my life before I became part of The Legion so it doesn’t matter to me or anyone else of the second rebirth of Gkolath if we are part of what you call the Stolen. We are of The Legion.”

“High General, may I have a word in private?”

“Yes ToPher you may speak to me.”

“Tinny you started talking in something besides Galachh and I’m pretty sure that the Prisoner picked up on it. He knows that we do come from Dirt.”

“I did, all of my plans to trick him and I’m the one to screw up. But Tophy he’s the spitting image of Brian. It’s all I can do to not jump him where he’s standing.”

“Prisoner, ToPher tells me that I started talking in something other than Galachh, I suppose it was my birth language, but he thinks that you understood what I was saying in that language. Is that true?”

“Yes High General you were speaking in English which is the most spoken language of Earth. Does that mean anything to you?”

“It means that we come from the same birth planet. I don’t remember much about my life before I became part of the second rebirth of Gkolath. Just because we came from your planet doesn’t mean we won’t do our best to defend the Empire and the honor of The Legion.”

“How can the two highest ranking officers of the Legion be of The Stolen? You were torn away from your world and sold as sexual slaves yet you became the High General and his 2nd in command.”

“That’s a discussion for another time Prisoner. I need to ask you some questions.”

I’ll answer anything you ask, that I don’t think will hurt my planet.”

“Fair enough, I can understand your desire to maintain your honor but we can find out what we want whether you want to answer or not. I would prefer to not to harm your beautiful body but I will if necessary.”

“That doesn’t scare me General, don’t you think that we were prepared in case we were captured. After all we were sent out to gain revenge for The Stolen.”

“What is your name?”

“I’m Major Taylor Peterson of Earth’s Space Force.”

“That sounds familiar to me for some reason.”

“My family is from one of the Twelve.”

“You’ve lost me again Major Taylor Peterson.”

“The Horab raided twelve cities and they are now known as the Twelve. My family is from Pittsburgh.”

“Why did you attack our ships without warning? Are there more of you or were you the only raiders? Why was a part of your ship destroyed? What was stored in the empty compartment? Why were only fighters sent out on such a raid? How did you enter normal so close to our ships? How did you find this stellar system?”

“We attacked you as a part of Operation Revenge. You sent the Horab to steal young men from us 50 years ago so that they could be your sexual slaves. We’re going to avenge that raid by causing The Legion and The Empire as much damage as we can. We’ve already paid the Horab back for their part. They tried raiding Earth again, two years ago, not one of the bastards left Earth orbit.”

“ToPher do we know anything about the Horab losing ships in a raid? If so find out why they were raiding an Unknown World since there wasn’t a rebirth sanctioned. 

Why does your planet still care about something that happened so long ago? There can’t be many alive who were personally connected with the captives.”

“That doesn’t matter High General, the people of Earth have united since The Raid and they are unanimous in our desire for revenge. The Legion will pay for buying our young men. Though when they find out that the highest ranking members of the Legion are of The Stolen there will be some confusion.”

“Major Taylor Peterson you can’t do serious damage to the Empire, there are over a thousand member planets. We can raise levy troops from every one of them so we can beat you through sheer numbers. I’ll ask my questions again.”

“I’ll answer what I can but I won’t answer if I feel it will be detrimental to Earth.”

“Was your squadron the only one sent to cause trouble in the Empire?”

“No, but I don’t know where the others were sent.”

“Why was part of your ship damaged?”

“Was part of my ship damaged? If so it must have happened when the explosion damaged my propulsion unit which allowed me to be captured.”

“What is the empty storage unit for?”

“Food supply storage for long range missions.”

“Why did you only have fighters in your squadron?”

“Our mission was primarily one of scouting out the Empire. Our fighters are simply faster in normal space than the battlewagons. Don’t worry when the Director decides it is time to truly punish the Legion then there will be more types of ships than just fighters.”

“Was it more than sheer luck that you entered normal space on top of our convoy?”

“Of course it was sheer luck even though we have had N-space drive for less than 50 years it became apparent very early in the development of the drive that jumping back into normal space is very random as to where in a stellar system you wind up. The only guarantee is that you won’t enter too close to a gravity well.”

“How did your squadron find this particular stellar system?”

“We lucked out and saw your ships in N-space and simply followed them and then jumped into normal space after they did.”

“Major Taylor Peterson, earlier you said you were from one of the Twelve. The cities that were raided to provide zygotes for the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“Yes my family is from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.”

“Do you have a personal connection to any of The Stolen?”

“Yes, my grandfather’s lover was literally torn from grandfather’s arms by the Horab.”

“Fuck!”

“High General, did you say something?”

“Major Taylor Peterson you’ve been more helpful than you probably think. We’ll meet again in the near future.”


	8. The General and The Director

June 12, 2051

Director’s Office  
Office of Planetary Security  
Lisbon Portugal

Director Kinney is seated at his desk trying to hide his concern over the fact that squadron 1 hasn’t returned to Earth on time. To the casual observer he is working on official documents; to anyone that knows him it’s obvious that he has been looking at the same page for hours.

Squadron 3 had returned on the first of the month after finding nothing of interest during their mission. 

Squadron 2 came home on June 8 with no knowledge of the Empire or the Legion but they had discovered a life-bearing planet during their search. The Colonization Department had already dispatched a survey expedition to the planet. 

Squadron 1 should have been home at least a week ago.

“Director Kinney.”

“Yes Colonel.”

“Squadron 1 just jumped back into normal space inside of Mars orbit, they should be back home in a few hours.”

Director Kinney’s face breaks into a huge smile.

“Did Major Peterson explain why they are so late?”

“Sir, Major Peterson isn’t with the squadron.”

“What?”

Director Kinney’s smile is replaced by a look of intense worry. 

“His second in command reports that Major Peterson was captured.”

“Oh shit, god damn the fucking Legion to hell.”

“Sir, what should I do when they land?”

“Bring them to me as soon as possible Colonel.”

“Yes sir.”

***

“Captain Picard, what happened?”

“Director Kinney, we had jumped back into N-Space from our last assigned stellar system and were preparing to return home when Major Peterson noticed a convoy of ships at the extreme range of our N-space sensors. We moved to intercept them and then followed them until they jumped into normal space. There were 30 transports and 2 larger ships in the convoy. All the ships were marked with the sign of the Legion. When we jumped we came out in normal space almost on top of them. We diced them up like soft cheese. None of them made any attempt to fight back.”

“If they didn’t fight back what happened to Major Peterson?”

“His propulsion unit was damaged by debris from one of the explosions. The only thing any of the alien transport ships did was to try to jump back to N-space. If we hadn’t entered normal space so close to them they would have escaped. The large ship leading the convoy eventually changed direction and came charging back at us. 

Major Peterson ordered us to return to Earth with our information and to not risk fighting with an obviously stronger ship. Though they never fired anything before we jumped. Sir we had no way of towing Major Peterson to safety; that is a design flaw in the fighters that should be addressed.”

“Have no fear Captain it will be.”

“Once we formed up in N-space I ordered the other ships to stay where they were and I returned to normal space to see what had happened. Luckily I entered normal space fairly close to the point where we had attacked the convoy. 

The alien ship used some type of ray to tow Major Peterson’s fighter to the planet. Even though I followed fairly close they didn’t seem to notice that I was there. A large shuttle came up from the planet, took Major Peterson’s ship into its interior and returned to the planet. 

I then jumped to N-space, rejoined the Squadron and then we returned to Earth as quickly as possible. 

Major Peterson had dumped all of his homing probes before he was captured and we placed a large number in that part of N-space so it should be easy to find the planet again. Sir, I’m sure that they were totally unprepared for an attack in space.”

“Thank you Captain, you’ll need to report to your superiors. Convey to your companions my thanks for a job well done. You have helped in the ultimate triumph of Operation Revenge.”

***

Director Kinney has flown to Pittsburgh to make a visit that he truly doesn’t want to make.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Hold your damn horses I’m coming. Don’t bust down the damn door.”

Two men, obviously father and son stare at the other.

“Augustus Brian Peterson-Marcus?”

“Dad you know full well who I am.”

“I’m here as the Director of Planetary Security, not as your father.”

The younger man’s body just slumps and after a few seconds he resumes his normal erect stature. An attractive woman just slightly shorter stands behind him in the doorway.

“Mother fucking hell you got him killed didn’t you; you fucking son of a bitch.”

“Gus calm down.”

“How can I calm down Katherine, my son is dead because of this fucking bastard?”

“Gus as far as we know he is only captured.”

“That is supposed to make me feel better, the god damn Stolen have only been captured for 50 years.”

“Gus, for your own sake calm down. What happened Brian?”

“Major Peterson’s Squadron followed a Legion convoy through N-space until they jumped into normal space. The Squadron then jumped in after them, found themselves on top of the alien ships and proceeded to destroy the convoy. During the fighting debris from one of the ships damaged Major Peterson’s propulsion unit. Major Peterson ordered his men to return to N-space when the large escort ship approached his position. The alien ship towed him to planetary orbit and then he and his ship were taken to the surface. We’ll do everything we can to get him back.”

“Well Dad the only fucking member of the family to give a shit about you and you send him out to be captured by aliens that buy sexual slaves.”

“Taylor knew the risks when he joined up and when he volunteered for this mission.” Director Kinney replies in a guilty tone.

“Like he had a fucking choice after all the shit you fed him as he was growing up. You didn’t have time to spend with me but you sure as hell had time to spend with my son. 

Did it make you happy when he turned out gay? I’m sure my being straight disappointed you. That had to have hurt the ego of the King of Liberty Avenue producing a breeder.”

“Gus calm down before you have a stroke. You aren’t helping Taylor acting like this. Brian would you like to stay for supper. You know Gus doesn’t mean any of this.”

“Thank you Katherine, but I can’t, I have to get back to the office. I‘ll let you know when we find anything out about Taylor.”

Director Kinney turns and begins to walk back to his limo but turns around when his son begins to talk again.

“Sure Dad walk away from me again. That’s what you‘ve been doing all of my life. Leaving me behind in your search for the fucking twink that wouldn’t go away. Hell Dad that fucking twink, if he’s even alive, probably doesn’t even remember you. So walk away and send the sons of other men to be captured and killed to look for the fucking love of your life. You took forever to admit loving Justin and then you lost him and then you never loved anyone else no matter how much they needed your love. I never want to see you again.”

Director Kinney starts to say something but then turns and moves down the sidewalk, tears unseen by his son fill his eyes.


	9. The General and The Director

The Ninth Cycle of TinTay

Exiting from the Prisoner’s cell High General TinTay and General ToPher turn and walk, arm in arm, down the corridor.

“Tinny if I didn’t know you better I would think that you really were a love struck newborn Legionary trying to impress his first baby. 

That interrogation was laughable. We didn‘t learn anything about Dirt that we didn‘t already know. You should’ve let me ask the questions, I would’ve found out what we need to know. I wouldn‘t have let who he looks like affect me like that. 

Of course I’ve known you for over 60 cycles and so I know that all of what I just said doesn‘t matter. High General TinTay isn‘t going to let a pretty faced prisoner throw his composure out of sync. ”

“You’re right on both counts Tophy, I did let who he looks like affect me more than I should’ve. I could never conduct a forcible interrogation of Major Taylor Peterson because in my mind that would be conducting a forcible interrogation of Brian. 

I’m sure that I learned much more than Major Taylor Peterson thinks I learned, but if necessary for the protection of the Empire and The Legion I’ll do what’s necessary and turn him over to you. 

Tophy if you ever truly think that I’m letting my feelings overrule what’s best for The Legion you’ll say something won’t you?’

“I’ve the best interests of The Legion in my heart as much as you do and I also have the best interests of High General TinTay in there as well. I won’t let this infatuation you have for the memory of your Brian hurt your career or the interests of the Empire and The Legion. No one will be able to say that High General TinTay ruined his reign because of desire for a prisoner.”

“I knew that I could count on you Tophy. I’ve always been able to rely on you. I learned a lot from the few questions that I asked and from the way Major Taylor Peterson answered them. Of course we already knew the most important answers long before we met with Major Taylor Peterson. An Unknown World has developed Inner Space drive, has built ships capable of fighting in space, and most importantly have a grievance against The Legion and the desire to punish us for that grievance.”

“Then why did you interrogate the prisoner if you already knew the important facts?”

“There are many little details to fill in the holes in the tapestry. I think that I learned some of them today.”

“Well tell me what they are?”

“Tophy I know that you picked up on what he said as easily as I did; you’re next in line to be High General and you wouldn’t be there if you didn’t know how to figure out when a prisoner is lying, telling the truth, or bending the truth.”

“But we might’ve made slightly different conclusions on what we heard Major Taylor Peterson say when he answered your questions.”

“True Tophy that is so true. The most important has to do with the part of his ship that was destroyed. Major Taylor Peterson, not the contact with the debris that crippled his ship, caused the explosion. They had some device that they didn’t want us to find and to be able to use.”

“I got that impression as well Tinny.”

“My guess is that it’s either something to locate ships in normal space while in Inner Space or how to jump to a specific location in normal space from Inner Space.”

“They would be wise to make sure we never capture such a device if it has either of those abilities.”

“His answer to the empty storage compartment was so obviously false that it means that it’s something that doesn’t really matter. After all, did he really believe that we would believe that a food storage compartment would have an opening to space and the ability to put the food containers into space? While the compartment is accessible to the pilot‘s living space it would take hours to open the compartment to get any food packages out of the compartment. That was a lie so clumsy it’s a wonder it didn‘t fall down as he was saying it.”

“Beacon dispenser would be my guess Tinny. Any exploratory ship carries a supply of beacons so that you can go back to any place promising. He’s young Tinny he might not have realized how obvious his lie was.”

“While that’s possible I’m going to go with the idea that he knew full well that we would catch that lie. He might have thought giving us an obvious lie on something that doesn’t really matter would cause us to become sloppy and not catch the important lie.”

“The way you were staring at him had to have unnerved him to some degree.”

“Was I really that bad?”

“He probably expected you to rape him as he stood there. Remember they think we were sold to The Legion to be nothing more than sexual slaves. I almost expected you to start reciting love poems to the boy.”

“I only did that once and you’ve never let me forget it.”

“It was so not like TinTay, the prodigy of the second rebirth of Gkolath. You had just been promoted to Colonel, the first of our rebirth to do so, and you came to my quarters, recited a few love poems and expected me to just roll over. Hell Tinny you knew full well I would roll over if you just walked in the door and gave me one of your stellar smiles.”

High General TinTay gives General Topher one of the stellar smiles in question.

“My latest baby had written those poems and I promised him I would recite them to someone who could judge their literary worth.”

“You thought I could judge their literary worth?”

General ToPher smiles at his friend.

“No I just wanted to fuck you that night as part of my celebration of my promotion. You’ve always been a good lay Tophy. 

I recited them the next day to Goransolop of the 3rd rebirth of Gkolath. He told me that they wouldn’t get the horniest Legionary in the history of the Legion into a romantic mood. What does that say about you, General ToPher?”

“I think My Lord General TinTay that we had better get back to work and forget about this foray into our personal histories.”

“Yes we probably had better do that, though you do know that you are spending the night with me don’t you General ToPher?”

“The thought never entered my head My Lord General TinTay.”

General ToPher’s smile almost matches a stellar smile of the High General.

“Dirt has fighters, that we know without a doubt, the numbers are in question but probably a fairly large number. I doubt that they have any battlewagons ready yet, though they probably are building something larger than a fighter. I doubt that they are building some vast array of types of warships though; I simply can’t see any reason to do so. 

Of course at this point in time it doesn’t matter since their fighters are capable of destroying any ship in our Navy. We have to make sure that the Navy starts arming and armoring their ships. Do you think it’ll work better for you to go to the Admiral of the Fleet or summon him to you?”

“He’s a levy officer, I will summon him to me. Even in the face of disaster we have to maintain traditions.”

“Spoken like a true General of The Legion.” The High General almost giggles as he speaks. 

“Now we come to the most important lie that Major Taylor Peterson tried to get past us. They are definitely trying to figure out how to control the jump from Inner Space to normal space. I’m sure they don’t have it now but who knows how close they are, of course our experts don’t think that it’s possible no matter how long you research the idea. But then our experts don’t think fighting in space is possible either.”

“Well we know what happened to that idea. 6 fighters from Dirt destroy 28 Imperial ships in less than 2 minutes.”

“I do believe Major Taylor Peterson when he says that they just followed the convoy and then jumped in after them. That would explain why they ended up so close to our ships. They simply managed to jump from the same point in Inner Space and so they wound up in the same point in normal space.”

“That gives me hope then, since something like that is not very likely to happen again so our ships will be able to jump to Inner Space and escape before they can be carved up.”

“True but we can’t win a war if we have to run away every time we meet up with the enemy. Then there’s no way we can assault Dirt if we have to worry about protecting the transports in orbit since you can’t jump while unloading troops.”

“What’e we going to do then?”

“First thing in the morning we have our meeting with the entire second rebirth of Gkolath, then I’ll head to Orkon to meet with the Emperor.”

“Tinny are you forgetting what Major Taylor Peterson gave away about your personal life?”

“No ToPher, but that’s my personal life and I can’t let that get in the way of what is right for The Legion and the Empire.”

All hints of levity leave TinTay’s body language.

“He all but told you that your Brian is still alive and that he thought of you as his lover. I remember enough from our life on Dirt to know that’s important.”

“Yes it’s very important, I remember so little of my life before I became of The Legion but almost all of what I remember is loving Brian and trying to make him love me. To find out now that it really did happen is wonderful news, but what can I do about it?”

“Instead of taking me to your quarters tonight you could have the prisoner brought to you. You could sleep with your Brian’s grandson and remember the times you slept with Brian.”

“ToPher there is no way I can do that. I’ve never forced anyone into my bed and I’m not starting with my grandson.”

“Your what?”

ToPher stares in disbelief at his long time comrade.

“Grandson, if Brian considered me his lover after the night we were captured by the Horab then if that event hadn’t happened then Brian and I might very well have become a couple. Gus would have thought of me as his father and so his son would be my grandson. 

So as far as I’m concerned Major Taylor Peterson is my grandson and while I am away from Hakim he is to be treated with all respect. No one no matter how highly ranked is allowed to force Major Taylor Peterson to do anything he doesn’t want to do. I mean anything ToPher. I will expect you to obey my orders on this.”

“I always obey your orders Lord General, but Tinny he isn’t nearly as desirable as you seem to think.”

“He isn’t? I look at him and I see Brian. I remember that last week before the Horab came to Dirt and changed my life completely.”

“What do you remember Tinny?”

“My mothers convinced me to go to the dance. They told me that I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t go. So I remember asking Brian if he would go as my date. He said ‘What would I do in a room full of fucking 18-year-olds.’ and I replied ‘I thought you liked fucking 18-year-olds.’ but he turned me down. So I went to the dance with a girl. Can you imagine Tophy one of The Legion doing anything with a female?”

“Well Tinny since it has been over 60 cycles since we could do anything with a female without the fear of being executed for doing it; not really.”

“I was at the dance having a good time with Daphne, does that sound right?”

“I remember that there was a Daphne in our school grouping so I suppose it could be right.”

“Then Brian appeared, walked over to me and then took my hand and walked me to the dance floor. We started dancing, I’m pretty sure I was floating on air. By doing this he was telling everyone there, including me, that he loved me. Then we ended up with a romantic kiss then we ran off. I know I was floating on air after that kiss. Somehow we wound up in a building full of ground transports.”

“I wish I had seen you so happy, I suddenly remember that you weren‘t happy very much back then.”

“I remember we were dancing and singing as we moved to his ground transport. I remember what we said to each other, Tophy where are all of these memories coming from?”

“I suppose seeing Major Taylor Peterson has pushed some button in your memory.”

“I can see it in my mind.

‘Did you see their faces?’

‘Yeah, we gave them a prom they’ll never forget.’

‘Me either.’

Then Brian smiled at me.

‘This was the best night of my life.’

‘Even if it was ridiculously romantic?’

Then we kissed tenderly

Then there was a tremendous noise and the building started shaking. I suppose I thought it was an earthquake. Brian and I just grabbed each other. Of course I know now that it was the effects of the Horab ship landing next to the building.

Then the Horab appeared, forcing everyone they encountered to move towards the main building. Now that I think about it Tophy; you were in that same group, why were you there instead of at the dance?”

“I don’t remember, I suppose I was going home.”

“Eventually they had all of us in the ballroom where they started the culling process. A couple of the adults made the mistake of trying to stand up to the Horab and were killed on the spot for their efforts. After that demonstration of power everyone just did what we were told. I remember plenty of noise from outside of the building so I suppose someone was fighting the Horab. Could it be that some of the Horab ships were captured and that is how they learned about Inner Space?

Brian and I were holding onto each other as tightly as possible when the Horab got to us. One of them tried to pull me away from Brian but I just hung on even tighter. I remember Brian saying

‘Take me and leave him here where he’ll be safe.’

Then there was a tremendous pain in my head. When I woke up I was in your arms on the Horab ship.”


	10. The General and The Director

June 13, 2051

Official Residence  
Director of Planetary Security  
Lisbon Portugal

Director Kinney has just opened his front door in order to stop the incessant knocking that had woken him from an uneasy nap.

“Mikey I suppose you’ve heard from Gus?”

The Director leads his best friend to the living room of his home.

“No Brian I didn’t hear from Gus, Katherine called to tell me that you would be needing me. Gus got drunk and was in no shape to call anyone.”

“Mikey as you keep telling me I’m 80 years old now and I don’t need your help. I never needed your help.”

“I believe that about as much as any of us believed that you really didn’t love Justin before the Prom.”

“Why did I screw things up so badly with Gus?”

“I don’t know Brian, I could say that it wasn’t in your nature to be a good father but that would be a lie.”

“Whether it was in my nature or not I certainly failed as a father.”

“It wasn’t all your fault though. None of us cut you any slack around Gus. We should’ve known better but Mel and I never let a chance to hurt you in the eyes of Gus pass us by. Mel just couldn’t help putting you down in any way since she was always so jealous of Lindsay’s feelings for you. 

My excuse is that I was an idiot. I had wanted you so much for so long and then that little twink comes along and wins your heart. 

Then he was stolen from you and instead of being the best friend that I always claimed to be I just made your life worse than it had to have been. 

Gus would ask where his Daddy was and I would say something nasty about Justin and that you only cared about getting Justin back in your life. Of course he hated the idea of Justin and so he can’t understand why you dedicated your life to getting him back. Then once you straightened out your life you went directly into the directorship and had even less time for Gus. 

I wish I had been the best friend that I always claimed to be but that’s water under the bridge. 

Gus will forgive you in time especially if you’re able to bring Taylor home. Is there any real chance of Taylor coming home?”

“I’ve no idea Mikey. We can go back to the planet but we’ve no idea if he’ll still be there or if he’ll even be alive. We simply don’t know enough but we’ll gain revenge for The Stolen and Taylor.

“Brian you need to move on, 50 years is more than enough time to brood over losing Justin. I should’ve been able to get through to you about this obsession for revenge long ago but I never really tried. None of us expected you to worry about him for 50 days let alone 50 years. He really did change you. 

But Brian you have to ask yourself are you the same man that he loved so much? If he were to come home would he even recognize you? I don’t mean your looks either, would he recognize the inner you. You’re a very bitter man and that’s not the man Justin would remember.”

“Mikey I’ve every right to be bitter. I finally admit to myself that I loved Justin and that he did love me. Then he’s stolen away from me. 50 years have passed and I still love him with what’s left of my heart. If we find The Stolen and bring them home then we’ll work out the kinks but Mikey I have to see him again before I die. I know that I would know if he had died so he has to be alive somewhere. Knowing Justin he has made the absolutely best of whatever he’s had to deal with. I may be a bitter old fool but Justin Taylor will still be my Sunshine.”

“Brian you have to be realistic, 50 years as a slave has to have affected Justin. Promise me that you won’t be too disappointed in whatever happens. Whether he comes home or not, if he’s dead or alive you have to start thinking about your life instead of his. Resign as Director and let someone else deal with the problems. Go to your son and try to help him deal with losing his only child.”

“Maybe when the immediate situation is resolved I can resign but I simply can’t do it now.”

“I knew that would be your answer Brian. Someday you have to start living your life instead of living for revenge.”

“Mikey you don’t have the nightmares that I have about that night. You don’t have the horrible memories that I have about how I treated Justin. He loved me from the first night and was brave enough to let me know from the beginning and to put up with all of my crap. I was such a coward; I would push him away and then pull him back, then do it all over again. Then he got less than an hour knowing that I had finally admitted to myself that I did love him.”

“Brian don’t make yourself suffer anymore than you have to.”

“Mikey, he was so brave in his dealings with me. How many twinks would have dared steal tricks from the King of Liberty Avenue? He did it twice. 

How many twinks would be brave enough to ask me to go to his Prom knowing what a coward I was about showing my emotions. I couldn’t just tell him that it scared the shit out of me to do something that would let people know how I really felt, no I had to make stupid comments and then tell him no. 

Then when I did grow some balls and went to the Prom did he flinch in anyway when I put him in the spotlight by dancing with him? No he just danced with me and looked at me with nothing but love in his eyes. We kissed in front of everyone at that homophobic school and he didn’t waver for a second. 

Then we went to the parking garage. I’ve played those last few minutes in my head over and over for 50 years. I wish I could forget them but then that would be forgetting him and I don’t want to do that, ever.

We were having so much fun, dancing and singing and just touching each other.

He said ‘did you see their faces?”

“Yeah we gave them a prom they’ll never forget’

‘Me either.’

I just though I would explode with happiness

‘This was the best night of my life, he replied to my smile

‘Even if it was ridiculously romantic?”

Then we just kissed again, god he made me feel like I was 18 again. Then there was a horrible noise and the building started shaking. We just hugged each other as tight as we could. Then there were these crazy shapes walking through the garage forcing everyone into the ballroom. Some fool resisted and the alien just blasted him to a pulp. I kept holding Justin in an attempt to protect him. Once everyone was in the ballroom they started sorting the boys out from everyone else.

They finally got to us and one of the fucking monsters started pulling on Justin trying to get him away from me. I said 

‘Take me and leave him here where he’ll be safe.’

Of course they didn’t know what I was saying and one of them just touched something to Justin’s head and he just collapsed in my arms then one of them just knocked me away from Justin. When I woke up I was in the hospital and the whole situation was over. All of the ships had left Earth orbit and The Stolen were gone. The love of my life was gone and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. God I wish I could forget that night, except that I would forget the look in Justin’s eyes while we were dancing and when we kissed.”


	11. The General and The Director

The Tenth Cycle of TinTay

Imperial Audience Chamber  
Sarek Castle

 

High General TinTay has gone to the Imperial capital of Bearrstok on the plant Orkon to meet with Emperor HerbHusk IV. HerbHusk is 20 cycles old and has been Emperor for less than a cycle. HerbHusk is a head taller than the High General, has coal black hair, pointed ears, and a slight greenish tinge to his skin coloring. TinTay and HerbHusk have never met before this hurriedly scheduled meeting. The meeting is being held in HerbHusk’s public office in the Imperial capital building.

“Sire I hope that you understand the gravity of this situation.”

“I may be young, Lord General, but I certainly am able to figure out when the existence of the Empire, as we know it, is at stake. 

The High General of Legion doesn’t leave the planet the Legion is on for a lark. My advisors and I had no problem figuring out how dangerous an enemy capable of fighting in space is to the way the Empire operates. 

Have you found out anything more about the situation?”

“Yes Sire I have. I interrogated the prisoner after his translator device was fluent in Galachh. 

The most important information came from his mere existence. We’ve an enemy that not only developed Inner Space drive on their own, have ships capable of fighting in space, and most importantly feel they’ve a grievance with The Legion and the Empire.”

“They’ve knowledge of the Empire? How can this be?”

“Simple Sire; they come from the zygote planet of the second rebirth of Gkolath. 

Evidently in the Raid for the rebirth the Horab lost many fighters and a capital ship, the Dirters were able to learn much about Inner Space drive from those captured ships. 

They learned of the Empire and The Legion from the memories implanted into the minds of the translators that the Horab used. According to the prisoner the Horab returned to raid Dirt 2 of their years ago and were totally destroyed in the attack. We need to find out why the Horab were raiding an Unknown World when a rebirth hadn‘t been sanctioned.”

“What’s the grievance of these people from Dirt?”

“They objected to the Horab stealing young men from them and selling them to The Legion as sexual slaves.”

The Emperor looks at TinTay with disbelief on his face.

“What? The Legion doesn’t buy sexual slaves. The Legion brings in new Legionarys during a rebirth.”

TinTay grants the Emperor one of his stellar smiles.

“True Sire but somehow that little bit of information didn’t translate well. 

They’ve spent over 60 cycles preparing to wage war on us. They call it Operation Revenge and from what the prisoner told me they’ll do everything in their power to hurt us. 

I don’t think they realize how big the Empire is or they would know that they can’t win a war with us. They can cause tremendous disruptions in our way of moving between the planets of the Empire though. 

I suppose it’s possible that they could capture some of our smaller populated planets as well but I’m not really worried about that. The Navy is going to have to go on a crash course of arming and armoring the ships they have now but they really will need to build new and better warships from scratch.”

My Lord General I just remembered that you are of the second rebirth of Gkolath.”

“Yes Sire, I’m of that rebirth.”

“That means we’ve been attacked by your birth planet.”

“Yes Sire it does.”

“Maybe for the best of the Empire I should have you executed and have the new High General run this war.”

The silence in the room becomes overpowering. The two men look at the other without any emotion visible on their faces.

“That is certainly within your rights Sire. 

It would do you little good though since the next five on the High General list are also of the second rebirth of Gkolath. While The Legion might stand for you having 6 High Generals executed I’m reasonably sure that the levy Generals on the Imperial planets would probably take it as a sign of Imperial weakness and there would be some rebellions. Some of the newer planets still resent being conquered and would considering revolting if they felt they had a chance. They would view The Legion in turmoil as a chance.”

The Emperor gives the High General an impish grin.

“Don’t worry Lord General it was just an idea, I would never really consider something like that since my father would come out of his grave and wring my neck if I had his favorite Legionary executed. He spoke of you often High General. 

Do I have to worry about the loyalty of The Legion or any part of The Legion?”

“No sire, The Legion is loyal to the Empire. The second rebirth of Gkolath is loyal to the Legion. 

I met with every surviving member of the my rebirth before I left Hakim. None of us, even for a second, thought of forswearing The Legion. Dirt may be our birth planet but most of us only have the slightest memories of it. We are of The Legion and we’ll fight and die for The Legion if necessary.”

“While I really had no fear that The Legion would fail in its duty I had to ask High General.”

“I understand Sire, it’s going to cause trouble in the Empire when the knowledge that we’re being attacked by the zygote planet of the second rebirth of Gkolath. 

I came to Orkon for several reasons Sire, first to inform you of what we’ve found out. 

The second reason is to ask for your help in spreading word to the Empire. 

Third to ask for the authority to wage the war and hopefully the peace.”

“Don’t worry Lord General you’ll have all of the help and authority I can give you. The Royal House of Orkon has had the loyalty of The Legion for over a thousand cycles and The Legion has the trust of the House of Nebraa. What help do you need immediately?”

“You need to use the Imperial bureaucracy to send word to all planets of the Empire of what to expect. I don’t know whether these Dirters will attack any ship they find or only ones they feel are attached to The Legion. 

Until the Navy can get some ships capable of fighting then the goal of every ship will have to be to flee any Dirter ship they encounter. The civilian ships should probably try to go in convoys since it is harder to hunt down a bunch of ships that scatter than single ships. Every ship must make sure that they have plenty of jumping fuel so that they can make multiple jumps in and out of Inner Space if necessary. If they can’t jump to safety then they are sitting quallcks.”

“This is something the bureaucracy was built for. The first information ships will be on their way by this evening. It’s too bad that Inner Space doesn’t allow communication devices to work. Having to send a ship to each and every planet takes so much time. 

As leader of The Legion you have the authority to wage the war as you see fit.”

“It never hurts to have the backing of the Royal House behind my orders to civilian authorities. The Navy will do what I tell them to since they are levy and the levy obeys The Legion without question. I also don’t think that the Admiral of the Navy is brave enough to tell ToPher anything he doesn’t want to hear. “

TinTay grins at the Emperor who returns the grin.

“I’ve never met the General but based solely on his reputation I doubt that I would tell him anything he didn’t want to hear either.” 

TinTay’s grin grows into a full out stellar smile.

“The problem waging this war will come with the costs of implementing our plans.”

“Don’t worry about that Lord General, the credit will be expended. Survival of the Empire is the most important detail we have to worry about. Have you plans on how to fight a war of this type?”

Just by shifting his stance TinTay become the epitome of a military expert.

“We started planning from the minute we learned of the attack on the convoy. My officers are working on the plans as we speak; but I’m hoping the Dirters will realize that they can’t win and will be willing to negotiate a peace. If this happens will you back me up on whatever I negotiate?”

“Anything short of dismantling the Empire Lord General. Ideally bringing Dirt into the Empire would be best. Do whatever is necessary to end the hostilities as soon as possible. 

If it comes to it; can we conquer this planet?”

“Of course we can conquer a single planet. The problem is that it’ll cost a fortune in lives and money. It’ll take many cycles and I doubt if the result will be worth the cost. 

I have Major Taylor Peterson under lock and key. When I feel that the Dirters have had enough time to realize that they can’t really win or cause us more than discomfort then I’ll send him back to Dirt to start negotiations. 

Of course if they really do have the ability to control where they jump into normal space then all bets are off. Even with that ability they can’t win a war with the Empire but our costs would go up tremendously. 

There is one fact that came up during the meeting of the second rebirth of Gkolath that might cause problems.”

“Well Lord General tell me the problem.”

“We all agreed that we remembered the population of our birth planet being somewhere between 5 and 6 billion people. This was over 60 cycles ago you must remember, the numbers are probably higher today.”

HerbHusk gives TinTay a look of sheer disbelief.

“5 to 6 billion, what are they, reproductive machines? The largest planetary population in the Empire is less than 500 million. Still with over a thousand planets we’ll still out number them by a sizable amount.”

“Those numbers insure that we would have a very difficult time of conquering Dirt in our usual manner. We would have to bring a tremendous number of troops to bear in order to have a chance. Plus we would have to clear the skies of their ships since a transport unloading troops would be easier to destroy than a toy ship floating in a tub.”

“If I ordered you to conquer this planet how would you do it?”

“It would depend on how quickly and at what cost you would be willing to accept.”

“What do you mean High General?”

“To conquer Dirt without a horrific cost in lives would require at least 10 cycles, tremendous buildup in the Navy and the levy Armies. The Legion and its offspring would have to spawn at least once and probably three times. Even taking all of these steps the loss in life would be tremendous. Or, as soon as we know where Dirt is located we could just overwhelm their defenses with massive attacks taking horrendous losses.”

“Spawn, what does that mean High General?”

“During a rebirth The Legion just replenishes its numbers. If we were to seriously considering conquering Dirt the size of The Legion wouldn’t be enough. There wouldn’t be enough Legionarys to do what would be necessary for conquering a planet with over 5 billion inhabitants and a functioning Inner Space navy. 

If we went ahead with this plan then I would order a spawning of The Legion. To spawn, General ToPher would take half of The Legion to another planet then his half and my half would both authorize a rebirth. Once both legions were up to full strength they would have to do it again. This would leave the Empire with 4 fully staffed and trained legions. I don’t think that this would be enough but it would be the minimum. This would require at least 10 cycles and probably closer to 20 because it wouldn’t do any good to go to war with untrained Legionarys. It would also require change in Imperial law regarding the numbers of Legionarys allowed.

So if there is any chance that we can come to an understanding with Dirt that would be the best choice for the Empire and The Legion. When I think that they might be willing to listen then I will send Major Taylor Peterson back to Dirt to start the negotiations.”

“Do whatever you think is necessary High General. I and the entire Empire will support whatever you decide to do.”

“Thank you Sire. The Legion will do whatever needs to be done to save the Empire from this threat.”

There is a knock on the door and Colonel ThanMa enters the room. He’s holding a communications pad in his right hand.

“Lord General, Sire, there is news about the Dirters.”

“What Colonel ThanMa?”

“A squadron of their fighters has been observed jumping in and out of this stellar system. They seem to be trying to jump in close enough to be able to attack our shipping.”

“Send word to the ships that they should return to the planet or jump to Inner Space if the raiders get close enough to attack them. Where are they now?”

“They are approaching the orbital factories just beyond the fourth planet of this system Lord General.”

“Well Sire we will soon know what kind of war we’re in.”

“What do you mean High General?”

“These factories are civilian aren’t they?”

“Yes they produce medicinal supplies using zero gravity production methods.”

“They are sitting quallcks, so if the Dirters destroy obvious non military targets then their search for revenge knows no bounds, if they don’t bother them then they are only interested in harming The Legion.”

“Colonel ThanMa, how long until they reach the factories?”

“Within a few minutes Sire.”


	12. The General and The Director

January 15 2052

Office of the President  
Presidential Palace of the United Planet of Earth   
Lisbon Portugal

Director Brian Kinney of the Department of Planetary Security has been summoned to meet with President Vasily Ostrov of the United Planet of Earth. While Kinney is 80 and the President is in his 60s the difference in their ages isn’t noticeable.

“Director Kinney I’ve called you here to find out how the war for revenge is going. 

Your department is very tight lipped. They won’t tell me anything without your approval. Somehow I don’t think that is how it was intended to be when the Department of Planetary Security was set up, all those years ago. 

As President of Earth I expect to be told the answer to questions I ask; not that I have to ask the Director of the Agency in question for those answers.”

“I’m sorry sir but you have to know that we’ve been working on this situation for over 45 years and some of my staff are overly protective of the Department’s information. I’ll make sure that they understand that you have full access to our data. 

But it’s important that this information remain confidential. The situation isn’t quite what we’ve been telling the public. We’ll need time to change the message we’re giving the public.”

“What do you mean by that Director Kinney? Are we losing the war?”

“No Mr. President, we aren’t losing the war but we aren’t winning it either.”

“What does that mean?”

“The problem is that we can’t bring the bastards to battle. Since that first contact with the ships of the Legion we haven’t been able to engage any of their ships. Whether they’re military ships or civilian they simply jump to N-space before we can get close enough to use our weapons. 

I guess we expected space warfare to be like the science fiction shows; one side wants to fight so the other side fights too even if it doesn‘t make sense for them to fight. 

We’ve come across orbital facilities in several stellar systems, but all of them have obviously been civilian so we haven‘t attacked them. We know where they are and can go back and destroy them; but I don‘t want to be the first to attack civilian targets. That’s the justification of Operation Revenge, that the Legion authorized an attack on Earth‘s civilian population so we don‘t want to attack civilian targets unless we have to.”

“Can’t you bring them to battle in N-space?”

“You can’t count on anything happening the way you expect in N-space. Unless an object is big enough to have its own N-space drive there is no predicting what will happen to it. A missile might go where it is supposed to go then just stop and sit there. That missile might go in the complete opposite direction of where it was aimed, or it might make a 180 turn and hit the ship that fired it. The only way you could fight in N-space would be to ram the other ship. We aren’t that desperate yet and some of the experts aren’t really sure that ramming would work either. Plus it’s even harder to find other ships in N-space than it is to catch ships in normal space. That first battle was so lucky in so many ways that we should’ve realized that it wasn‘t going to be as easy to hurt the Legion as we thought.”

“What’re your plans Director Kinney?”

“We’ll continue to send squadrons out to learn as much as we can and to harass them. Every time some of our ships jump into an Empire system we disrupt their shipping; because they’re afraid we’ll be able to destroy them and they jump into N-space or return to the planet before they planned to. Eventually we’ll be lucky and jump into a system close enough to something and will be able to capture a prisoner. With a prisoner we can learn their languages and then open up a dialogue with them. I’m still hoping that they’ll send Major Peterson, or one of the Stolen, back to us so that they can start negotiations. 

Until we can talk all we can do is carry on with what we’ve been doing and hope for some luck. We’ve located over 100 of their planets and the Colonization Department is researching over a dozen uninhabited planets for our future colonization needs. 

We’ve noticed a change in the behavior of some of their larger warships though.”

“Well don’t keep me in suspense Director.”

“After the first contact with them, when we destroyed the convoy, every ship we’ve gotten anywhere close to has jumped to N-space but now some of these larger ships will make an attack vector like they plan on fighting then at the last possible second they’ll jump to N-space. Our military experts feel that this is just a game of chicken, that they’re setting us up for the point when they actually have an armed ship in place. Our ships will be so used to them jumping that when one doesn’t they’ll not react in time and the Empire ship will be able to get off a salvo first. All of our officers have been informed of this but I’s human nature to let up and so I expect that eventually we’ll lose a ship or two to this ruse. I suppose it says something that the ships of the Empire weren‘t armed, it just emphasizes that they haven‘t had to fight in space for a very long time.”

“Thank you Director Kinney, keep me informed of any further developments.”

“Yes Mr. President I’ll do that.”

“Director Kinney I’m sorry to interrupt but an important message just came from the Command Center.”

“What’s the message Captain Sheridan?”

“A Legion ship just jumped into Jupiter orbit.”

“Just one, what’s it doing?”

“It’s just sitting there, Director Kinney. Command Center is now reporting that the ship is sending Major Peterson’s identification sequence.”

A look of joy covers the face of the Director, the President smiles knowing why the other man is happy.


	13. The General and The Director

The Tenth Cycle of TinTay

High General’s private office  
Legionary Headquarters,  
Reborah, Hakim

ToPher and TinTay are seated at the side table eating their supper.

“Tophy it’s been almost a cycle since the Dirters attacked our convoy. I think that it might be time to send Major Taylor Peterson back to Dirt to see if we can start negotiations. 

They must realize by now that we won’t fight them in space and that they aren’t capable of attacking one of our planets. 

Has the navy gotten any ships ready to fight yet?”

“No Tinny they haven’t gotten any of their ships equipped with weapons systems that don’t start falling apart, as soon as they fire the first test missile. It ‘s been so long since the Navy even considered the possibility of their ships having to fight that they simply stopped building ships capable of being altered to add weapons. 

Then we add in the fact that they use them until they literally fall apart from age. They hadn’t built any new ships for almost a hundred cycles. 

The first armed ships, built new, should be ready in less than half a cycle though.”

“While we’ll continue building the new warships, we’ll start the negotiating process with Dirt. They might not be willing to talk so we still might need the new ships. I also don’t want to take the chance of being caught flat-footed by some other race that develops Inner Space drive. 

Have we ever gotten word from the Horab about why they raided Dirt when there wasn’t a rebirth sanctioned? 

Have they ever explained why they didn‘t tell the Legion that they lost ships when they raided Dirt for the second rebirth of Gkolath?”

“No we haven’t gotten any answers to our questions about Dirt; we just get evasions that the Horab blame on communication mishaps. Communication with the Horab is done with translators since the translating devices don’t work with them. 

The Imperial bureaucracy claims that they haven’t had any better luck with them either. 

I’m thinking that the Horab might be hiding actions from the Emperor and us. Since the Horab have been so useful in the rebirth process we might’ve given them too much leeway, over the cycles, on how they provide zygotes for a rebirth. 

When this situation with Dirt is concluded it might be in the Empire’s best interest that The Legion gives the Horab home world a surprise visit.”

For the first time of the night TinTay allows a smile on his face.

“Sounds good to me Tophy. Even the Horab will be uneasy to have you and a Legion task force pay them an unexpected visit.

Do you think Major Taylor Peterson is ready to go home? 

More importantly will he be willing to take a message from us to Dirt without being overly negative about The Legion and Empire? I don‘t expect him to sing our praises but will he be able to be somewhat neutral?”

“Of course he’s ready to go home and I’m reasonably sure he’ll speak well of us. Of course he’ll also tell them of any perceived weaknesses he has observed during his time on Hakim.

He’s gotten over the need for revenge once it sank in that The Stolen weren’t made into sexual slaves. That we were captured in order to became part of The Legion. 

While he hasn’t been able to go anywhere he might want to go to he’s been very popular with the Legionarys of the first rebirth of TinTay; once I let it be known that he could be considered an acceptable bed partner. While most of his partners have been of the first rebirth of TinTay, he as been with at least one Legionary of almost every rebirth. No member of the 2nd rebirth of Gkolath has slept with him though. 

It would be safe to say that Major Taylor Peterson is very willing to share his charms. Though I still don’t see why so many find him so attractive. 

He asked me why you haven’t been to see him since that first interrogation. I simply told him that the High General of The Legion is too busy to spend time with a mere prisoner of war. While he bought that answer he did stick his tongue into the side of his cheek while he considered it. I thought about slapping him silly for his impertinence but I remembered that you wanted him treated like family.”

“I’ve avoided him because I can’t bear to be reminded of Brian. Brian can never be a part of my life again so to look at his grandson, who looks just like him, is more than I want to deal with. 

His sexual behavior also reminds me of Brian. He could have any man he wanted and it seems that Major Taylor Peterson can have any Legionary he wants. Why hasn’t he been with anyone from the second rebirth of Gkolath?

“I think that for most of us he’s too young and brings back memories that we don’t want to think about at this stage of our lives.”

“I know that I have to talk to Major Taylor Peterson before we send him back to Dirt but coward that I am I’ve put that off until the last possible moment.”

“Tinny no one could ever claim that you’re a coward. You’ve led too many charges into the face of the enemy for that to be something you should ever worry about.”

“I know that I’m not militarily a coward but when it comes to dealing with my feelings for Brian I’m totally afraid. When there was no possibility that I would ever see him again I could remember the good times we had that last night before the Horab captured us. Now that there’s a good chance that I’ll see him again I find that I wobble in my boots at the thought of being in the same room as he is. 

I wonder if he remembers me, does he remember our time together as a good time or not? I worry that we have become two completely different men and will have nothing in common. I‘m afraid that I’ll become tongue tied in his presence and look like an idiot.”

“There’s no reason for you to fear meeting with this man. You’re the High General of The Legion of Orkon you simply tell the man to come to your quarters, take off his clothes, and then make love to him. You do realize how old he must be now don’t you Tinny? You’ll probably have to do all of the work. What will be will be and there’s no reason to worry about it.”

“Yes I know how old he is and how old I am but that doesn’t matter; if I think of him in any way sexual then he’ll be 30 and I’ll be 18. There is no way I could tell him to do anything. I can only hope that I don’t see him until after the negotiations with the Dirt government have been concluded and we’re at peace. I’ll need to be on the top of my game for the negotiations and if I see Brian before I probably won’t be able to speak coherently. After finishing the negotiations I might find the courage to go back to Pittsburgh and find him.”

“There’ll be no reason for your Brian to be at the first meetings so there’s no need to worry about it. Besides even if he’s there you’ll do your duty as High General of The Legion. 

I still think the best answer is to forget about him and invite Major Taylor Peterson into your bed. I‘m reasonably sure that he would be thrilled to receive that invitation. The 30 year old grandson would have to be better in bed than the 80 year old grandfather.”

“That’s never going to happen Tophy. As High General I have to set an example for the rest of The Legion. For whatever reason the Dirters think that The Legion buys sexual slaves so we don’t want them to think that I can just demand that a prisoner put his legs in the air for me. 

Tophy I know that you are interested in my best interests but you have to stop putting down Brian at every chance you get. You seem to be jealous of him. 

We don’t know what these Dirters are going to demand that we give up for a peace treaty. They might very well want my head on a stick, and if that happens then I wouldn’t have to worry about anything after that little ceremony takes place. They also might not be willing to even talk to us if their desire for revenge is too great.”

“While the Emperor will allow you to compromise on a lot of things with the Dirters I don’t think he would allow you to sacrifice yourself. 

Their military will be willing to talk since they now know that they can‘t bring us to battle until we are ready to fight. 

Tinny I don‘t know why this Brian bothers me so much since I don‘t really remember him at all but I just don‘t want you to get hurt.”

“If my death is what they need to calm their desire for revenge on The Legion then that is what they’ll get. Of course I’ll make them work for it. I’m fond of my head and won’t give it up too easily. 

It makes me happy that you worry about my feelings Tophy but I’m over 70 cycles old, I’m capable of taking care of my emotional stability. 

I suppose I’d better get started on this negotiating phase of the war. Bring Major Taylor Peterson to my duty office the day after tomorrow at the 10th hour of the day. 

We’ll need to send someone with him to act for The Legion, pick someone from the second rebirth of Gkolath, and not yourself Tophy.” TinTay grins at his friend.

ToPher smiles back at his lifelong friend.

“Yes Lord General.”

***

“Major Taylor Peterson, it’s good to see you again.”

“Thank you High General, I’ve been looking forward to meeting with you again. When I left Earth my goal was to harm the Legion as much as humanly possible. Now that I’ve found out more of the truth my goals have changed. I would like the Empire and Earth to become friends. 

I’m sure that both sides have a lot that can be shared for the benefit of both. We wanted revenge for something that didn‘t really happen. 

But even though The Stolen weren‘t taken to be sexual slaves they still were taken away from Earth by force and many people on Earth will not be willing to forgive that fact.”

“I’m glad to hear that Major Taylor Peterson since I had you brought here today to see if you would be willing to return to Dirt as an emissary of The Legion. 

You’ve fucked enough of my Legionarys to be considered an honorary member of The Legion.”

“Is that a problem High General? No one forced me and I certainly didn‘t force any of them. I do have to say that it has been very interesting fucking a blue skinned guy one day and a green skinned one the next. Then the Legionary with the prehensile tail added some new tactile feelings to the sexual acts we engaged in.”

“I think Lord General that we are getting off of the topic.”

“Yes General ToPher you are right, as always, thank you for reminding me why we’re here today.”

“I’m sorry High General for speaking out of line.”

“You’ve done nothing wrong Major Taylor Peterson. I started the talk about sex. 

I’m glad that you have been reasonably happy during your enforced stay with The Legion. I do need to send you back to Dirt in an effort to start talks between The Empire and Dirt. Are you willing to go home and speak honestly about your time since you were captured? I’ll send an officer of The Legion with you to be our official envoy.”

“High General I can’t guarantee the safety of a member of the Legion.”

“I know that and so does Colonel ThanMa but it’s important that we try to stop these hostilities. So far no great damage has been done but eventually it’ll happen if we don’t stop the war soon.”

“Then yes I’ll return to Earth to do what I can to help in starting the peace process.”

“Good, then we’ll start making some plans. You and ThanMa will return to Dirt in a Legion ship. I assume you have some way of proving to the Dirt authorities who you are.”

“That’ll be no problem High General. Though I’m sure that they’ll believe I’ve been brainwashed once I start saying good things about the Legion and Empire. But don‘t fear, I’ll be able to deliver your messages to the proper authorities.”

“Basically we’ll need to set up a meeting between me, as representative of The Legion and the Empire, and someone from Dirt who can speak for them. We then can start working out the details of how to end this conflict that both sides can live with.”

“I’m sure that the Director of Planetary Security will represent Earth in these talks. He’s basically in the same position as you are except that he isn’t directly in charge of the military. Where would you want to meet with him?”

“I would think that on some uninhabited world would be the best. That way both sides can be relatively sure that there isn’t a double-cross going on. You can take that idea to the Dirters and they can choose the planet. After we make sure that the planet is safe then we can set a date for the meetings. You can also tell them that we’ll have ships capable of fighting in space by the time these meetings can be held.”

“It sounds like a good plan to me High General but it’ll depend on whether the people of Earth can get past their desire for revenge. That desire has been developed for 50 years and may not be easily removed from the worldview of the population. I’ll do what I can but again I can’t guarantee the safety of Colonel ThanMa.”

“That is a risk he’s willing to take. ThanMa is a member of the second rebirth of Gkolath and thus one of the Stolen.”

“While that fact might help with the authorities I don’t know how it’ll play with the general populace of Earth. How many of The Stolen are still alive?”

“There are less than 300 of us left alive. While as a group we have been very successful more than half of us were killed, under the High Generalship of Horem, during the conquest of Blumom. 

Major Taylor Peterson if at possible you need to convince your people that it isn’t in the best interests of either side to continue these hostilities. Convince them that I’ll negotiate in good faith and have the authority from the Emperor to do whatever is necessary to end the war. 

There’re traditions that I can‘t break so they need to know that as well.”

“I’ll do everything I can High General. It might take some time.”

“Colonel ThanMa has been given a crash course in implanting translation devices and how to transfer the knowledge of a language from one device to another. That works faster than trying to teach the devices a language when there aren’t a large number of speakers of the language; of course the translators aren‘t as capable as they are when they learn the language on their own..”

“I’m sure that the authorities will want to check the devices out before they implant them. You’ll need to send extras for that process.”

“We assumed that would be necessary. It’s interesting that more and more of our memories from before we became of The Legion are returning as we think about Dirt. 

Colonel ThanMa has been given codes that he can give to any emissaries from Dirt to prove that they come from the two of you and so will be given the benefit of the doubt if they show up here. The Legion has a long history of dealing with other planetary populations so we know how to protect ourselves; if someone from Dirt was to try to something other than communicate this would not be taken lightly. 

Have no fear Major Taylor Peterson, while I and the Emperor, don’t want to continue this fighting with Dirt we know that we can win a war with your planet. Neither side would want the results of that so it’s in the best interests of both sides to make every effort to come to an agreement to end the hostilities.”

“I’ll do everything I possibly can to convince the authorities of that fact High General. I hope that everything works out well for both sides.”

“You and Colonel ThanMa will leave tomorrow.”

***

Legion Explorer Craft  
5 minutes after entering Inner Space from Hakim orbit.

“Colonel ThanMa why is the High General only sending you with me to Earth?”

“According to Legion traditions, and there are a 1000 cycles of Legion traditions, one representative from The Legion works best when opening negotiations. Once we’re able to agree to arrange a meeting between our two governments then High General TinTay will send a large party. Though most of those functionaries will be Imperial bureaucrats and levy officers. The Legion delegation will be either General ToPher or High General TinTay and just enough Legionarys to provide protection.”

“Traditions seem to rule the Legion much more than they do on Earth.”

“The Legion was first formed when Orkon conquered Minbar and began the Empire. Minbar was the second planet in the Empire and there’re now over a 1000 planets in the Empire, all of which have been conquered by the Legion. So yes The Legion follows tradition on almost every detail. 

High General TinTay probably knows the traditions better than anyone in the Empire and will know how to use one tradition to counter other traditions. Though there are some traditions that simply can’t be countered.”

“Probably the tradition that I found the most interesting is the complete lack of contact with females by Legionarys.”

“That’s probably the tradition that causes more embryos to never become babies of The Legion. Some males simply can’t get past the need for females. So they never move past being an embryo and are destroyed when the next rebirth begins. 

Tradition requires that The Legion have nothing to do with females for a biological reason but tradition doesn’t require homosexuality of Legionarys. While the vast majority of Legionarys do engage in homosexual acts it isn’t mandatory, any Legionary can remain celibate if he can’t bring himself to have sex with other Legionarys. Of course no Legionary from the newest baby to the oldest member of The Legion is ever forced to do something he doesn’t want to do. Rape of a fellow Legionary is as much a death sentence as having sexual contact with a female.”

“You said the tradition against having sex with females is biologically orientated, how so?”

“Since the formation of the Empire with the conquest of Minbar by Orkon there has never been a pregnancy between two different races. None of the Empire planets have a high fertility rate so if a Legionary has a relationship with a female of Hakim she won’t have any children with him but more importantly she won’t have any children with a male of her race. 

The Legion is the elite military unit of the Empire and leads the levy Armies in the conquest of new planets. So yes the homosexuality of The Legion is biologically based.”

“What’s considered rape of another Legionary?”

“If I said no to any sexual act required by my Legionary sponsor when I was a baby and he went ahead anyway that would be considered rape and punishable by death. Even something as minor as a forced kiss would be considered rape. Of course there have been cases of a baby demanding sexual acts that a sponsor wasn’t willing to provide and the baby was executed for rape. This is a very rare occurrence though since from the beginning of our time as a embryo we learn about the traditions of The Legion and the proscription of rape is almost the very first one we learned about.”

“Did you ever tell anyone no?”

“That is a personal question Major Taylor Peterson.”

Taylor looks embarrassed.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped the bounds Colonel ThanMa.”

“It’s ok Major Taylor Peterson it just caught me off guard. There was a time early in my babyhood when I thought that I would have to say no.”

“Well you have my interest Colonel.”

“I was an active gay man back on Dirt so I had no problem having homosexual sex. My first sponsor and I fucked like grooths but eventually I had to move on since he had taught me everything that he could. 

My second sponsor was from the 4th rebirth of Lavello. I found out later that he was the only member of that rebirth still in The Legion. He was a huge male, over 7 feet tall and 300 pounds of muscle. His skin was orange tinged and his hair was blonder than High General TinTay‘s was, when we were young. 

He looked like the ideal Legionary but he was in the supply corps, which only fights, in defensive situations. He had specifically requested me when he heard that my first sponsor was giving me up. 

When I first came to his quarters he was coming out of the bathing unit and I about fell over when I saw that his dick was almost to his knee in the flaccid state. I knew that if he wanted to fuck me I would have to say no since even as experienced as I was there was no way that I could take something that huge.”

“How big was it erect?”

“15 inches minimum but later that night when he invited me into his bed I hesitated. He then told me that I had nothing to worry; that the last thing he wanted to do was fuck me. So I got into bed and we had a fabulous night but I had to do everything since he was the most passive lover I’ve ever had. In the morning I asked him why he was so passive considering his physique and age. I was so surprised at his answer that I’ve never forgotten a word and this was over 60 cycles ago.

‘Little ThanMa you never have to worry about me doing anything physical to you since for me to do so would cause my death.’

‘What?’

‘I’m from the 4th rebirth of Lavello which has to be the worst rebirth in the history of The Legion. When the Horab found my planet they thought they had found the perfect zygote planet. 

As you can see I am very large and physically strong. The problem is that my people have a hormonal weakness regarding violence. The thought of causing violence cause hormones to be released in our bodies that causes our death. Over half of the zygotes died on the trip to the rebirth center simply from the idea of being forced to be soldiers. 

At the rebirth center less than 10 of us survived the embryo stage since as we learned about the traditions of The Legion the ideas caused the hormonal release. I was the only baby of the 4th rebirth to be born a Legionary, I guess I would’ve been considered defective on my home planet since the idea of violence doesn’t affect me as much as it did my fellows. 

The others died when their sponsors required them to act in the active role. Evidently the hormone considers active sexual acts as violence. I’ve been very careful to never do anything that my body could consider violent. So young ThanMa you have nothing to fear from me, since anything you would be afraid of would kill me. 

In all the history of The Legion the time interval between the 4th rebirth and the 5th rebirth of Lavello is the shortest.’

That is the closest to saying no that I’ve ever been but many Legionarys say no to various acts every day. I’ve been with others who would do anal sex but not oral and vice versa.”

“15 inches that must have been quite the sight if nothing else.”

“Yes it was an amazing sight and I was tempted a time or two to try to take him either orally or anally but he wouldn’t allow it since he didn’t want to take the chance that even if he lay perfectly still his body would betray and kill him.”

“Colonel ThanMa how much do you remember of your life on Earth? Which of the Twelve were you from? Do you want to go back home when we get to Earth?”

“I doubt that there is anything for me back in Manchester so I don’t have any great desire to go back there and like most of the others of the second rebirth of Gkolath I don’t really remember much about my life before I became of The Legion. 

Any other personal questions Major Taylor Peterson?”

“I’m pushing it again aren’t I?”

“It isn’t like we have a lot of other things to do. Ask away, I can always not answer.”

“How did you get the name ThanMa?”

“The High General of The Legion derives a formula for each rebirth, it’s different every time though. I suppose that the formulas are reused over time just not when there is overlap amongst members of The Legion. 

The second rebirth of Gkolath had a simple formula; the second and third syllables of our birth name. I was Nathan Maloney so I became ThanMa when I was born a Legionary. For the first rebirth of Valdof they took the first two syllables of their birth name and add Dof to the end. 

High General TinTay came up with a very novel formula for the first rebirth of TinTay, those Legionarys simply use whatever name they want, most stayed with the first part of their birth name but a fair number have TinTay in their name.”

“As you probably know I had sex with a lot of members of the first rebirth of TinTay since they are the closest in age to me and I wondered why so many had TinTay in their name but not all of them.”

“High General TinTay is very beloved by The Legion and we would all die for him in a heartbeat if necessary, because we know that he would die for any one of us just as fast. He’s been High General for 10 cycles and we’ve captured 4 planets in that time and only had one rebirth, which really was more because of the policies of the previous High General than of TinTay. He’s a brilliant military mind and a wonderful lover.”

“You’ve slept with him.”

“Many cycles ago when we were both young Legionarys we had a short affair. High General TinTay has always been generous with his favors though he’s less obvious about it now than he was when we were younger and less highly ranked. 

Even as High General he’s sponsored his share of babies. Some High Generals have worried so much about their status that they became almost celibate.”

“I had very little contact with the High General but I found him very likable and I was raised to hate the Legion and everything it stands for. 

General ToPher on the other hand scares me even when he’s going out of his way to be nice.”

“You wouldn’t be the first to be afraid of ToPher but he loves TinTay with a dangerous passion. If he felt anyone threatened TinTay, in any possible way, he would have no problem killing him in a split second. 

Well Major Taylor Peterson the computer tells me that we’ll be jumping into Dirt space in 5 minutes. You have your recognition codes? We wouldn‘t want to be destroyed before we can talk to the authorities.”

***

“Gus, this is your father, Taylor is back. I’ve sent a jet to Pittsburgh to bring you and Katherine here.”

“How is he Dad?”

“I haven’t spoken to him yet Gus but he should be on the ground by the time you get here. Do you want me to tell him the good news?’

“How do you know about that?”

“Gus I’m the Director of Planetary Defense did you really think I wouldn’t find out about the conception of my great-grandchild?”

“I guess I’m so use to not thinking about you Dad that it didn’t occur to me. Don’t tell him anything about it. Katherine and I’ll tell him when we get there.”

“OK son, Gus we need to talk.”

“I know Dad, let me talk to Taylor first.”

“See you soon.”

The Director hangs up the phone and wipes his brow of the nervous perspiration that covered it.

***

“Director Kinney, Major Peterson and his Legion companion are here. The alien looks extremely human to me Mr. Director.”

“Captain Sheridan bring Major Peterson to me, keep the prisoner in the outer office. Make sure he’s comfortable but that he knows there are armed guards prepared to shoot.”

“Yes Mr. Director,”

***

“Taylor, it’s good to see you again. Your parents will be here in less than an hour. We’ve missed you so much. Were you mistreated? Why did they let you go? Who’s your companion?” 

“Grandfather I have a question and a request before I answer your questions.”

“What Taylor? Anything we can do we will.”

“Can you have the pictures of The Stolen computer aged so that they would look like they are 50 years older than they were when they were captured?”

“That’s no problem Taylor, that’s been done for every one of The Stolen every year on the anniversary of The Raid.”

“Then I would like to see the pictures of The Stolen from Pittsburgh.”

“Why do you want to see these pictures, did you meet any of The Stolen?”

“Just let me look at the pictures first grandfather.”

Director Kinney buzzes his assistant and asks her to have the relevant pictures made available to the computer in his office.

“There you go Taylor, they are alphabetical by last name.”

“Thank you grandfather.”

Taylor looks through the array of pictures, selects two and pastes them into a separate page. Taylor then gestures for his grandfather to join him at the computer.

“Grandfather this picture is of General ToPher, second in command of the Legion. This picture is of High General TinTay, leader of the Legion.”

Director Kinney stares at the computer screen in disbelief. 

“Taylor are you sure of this?”

“Yes Grandfather I’m sure.”

“Justin, my Justin is the leader of the god damn fucking Legion.”


	14. The General and The Director

April 25 2052

Earth Transport Ship Enterprise

“Grandfather we’ll be landing on the planet in a few minutes. Did you find out whether the High General would be part of the Empire delegation? I really hope that he’s here.”

“The last communication just said that a high ranking officer of the Legion would be the head of the Empire delegation. It won’t matter who’s the head of the delegation since I know what I’m willing and authorized by the President to accept. I’m here as the Director of Planetary Security not as Brian Kinney; so if it’s the High General or someone else it won’t matter to me. I’m here to negotiate a treaty between the United Planet of Earth and The Orkon Empire not to meet with someone from my past.”

“Grandfather I know why we’re here but it doesn‘t have to be only one or the other. You can deal with the treaty and deal with someone from your past. High General TinTay doesn’t know that you’re the Director of Planetary Security I made sure to keep that from him.”

“That was a good tactical decision on your part but I doubt that it’ll make any real difference in the negotiations. If Justin was able to rise to the very highest rank of the Legion he’s not going let my presence change his negotiating positions. 

Taylor you have to remember that Justin and I are two different men than we were 50 years ago. My duty is to the people of Earth and that duty is what I‘m going to deal with on this trip. My only goal is to get the best possible treaty for the people of Earth.”

“Have you decided how you are going to tell the people of Earth that The Stolen became members of the Legion and not sexual slaves? That they’ve risen to the very highest ranks of that organization. Is telling the people of Earth that they‘ve had 50 years of advertising, based on a mistranslated expression, used to promote a desire for revenge part of your duty.”

“Taylor I’m not sure I like your attitude. I’ll fulfill my duty as I see fit, just like I’ve done since long before you were born. 

I’ve got my staff working on how to deal with the idea of The Stolen as members of the Legion as we speak. I think that it won’t be as hard to change public view as many others in the Department think. We’ll play up the fact that we have forced a 1000 planet Empire to seek terms from us. After that has sunk in we’ll start letting the people know that men of Earth became the leaders of the elite military unit of that Empire. Having a signed and sealed treaty will help as well. 

But how I deal with seeing Justin again is something I have to do on my own in my own way. I know that you mean well Taylor but stay out of my personal business and let me do my job.”

“Ok grandfather but you know I just want what is best for you, always have and always will. I was only around High General TinTay a little but I can see why you loved him back before The Raid.”

“What I did or didn’t feel before The Raid no longer matters. What matters is getting the best possible treaty signed.”

“All right Grandfather I’ll back off but I still think you should go after Justin now that you can.”

“Taylor how does it feel to be a father?”

“Changing the subject, Grandfather? Finding out that Dad and Mom had gone ahead and used my sperm sample to impregnate a surrogate mother was almost as surprising as it was to find out that your Justin was the High General of the Legion. I imagine that when I held my son in my arms that first morning after his birth was similar to how you felt when you first held Dad in your arms. I hope that you approve of his name.”

“It’s the perfect name, Taylor, all things considered.”

***

The Tenth Cycle of TinTay

Legionary Transport Ship

“Tinny, why are we both here? I understand that the Emperor sent word that he wanted you to oversee the negotiations but why did you want me here as well?”

“Tophy I need you here for support. For some reason dealing with these Dirters is harder than dealing with any other race I’ve had contact with. I know what I have to do and how to do it but I’m afraid that if you aren’t here to back me up I’ll give away the store. You‘ve always been able to stiffen my resolve; amongst other things.”

“Lord General you and I both know better than that. Whether I’m here or not you’ll do your duty to The Legion and to the Empire. Your Brian himself could be the man you have to negotiate with and you would still do your duty. Since he isn’t going to be who you have to deal with you won’t even break a sweat.”

“I hope you’re right Tophy, I hope you’re right.”

“Never fear Tinny you’ll do what you have to do and do it with the greatest of ease.”

***

“I was hoping that you would be here High General. I’ve a gift for you.”

“Now why would you have a gift for me, after all I kept you a prisoner for almost a cycle.”

“I did attack your convoy so your keeping me a prisoner certainly was within your rights as the leader of the military organization attacked. I certainly have no complaints about how I was treated while I was a prisoner of the Legion. There were times when I felt like I was a member of the Legion instead of a prisoner.”

“I suppose that you felt like a member of The Legion while you were fucking more than your share of my Legionarys.”

“There’s that little fact.”

“Well Major Taylor Peterson I hope that these negotiations go well for the sake of your people and the people of the Empire.”

“I was promoted High General I’m now a colonel. It seems that since I led the only attack that actually caused harm to the Legion my higher ups felt that I should be rewarded.”

“That’s good news Colonel Taylor Peterson.”

“You can just call me Taylor, High General.”

“OK Taylor, I’ll try to remember to call you that, if it’s what your prefer.”

“All of my friends call me Taylor and I want to think of you as a friend. That’s why I brought you this gift.”

“Well now you have my curiosity involved, Taylor.”

“It isn’t much but I hope you like it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a photo projector, you download pictures into it and then they are projected onto any flat surface. You can also add vocal descriptions if you desire. There are two photos that I hope you might find especially interesting. The remainder of the pictures are just typical tourist views from various parts of Earth. Just push this button to start and then this arrow button will go to the next picture and this button will start a slideshow of all the pictures.”

“Who are these people with you Taylor?”

“This is a four generation picture of the men of my family. This is my grandfather, Brian Shawn Kinney, my father, Augustus Brian Peterson-Marcus, this is me, Taylor Kinney Peterson, and this is my son, Justin Brian Peterson.”

“You never mentioned having a son before.”

“That’s because I didn’t have one when we met the last time.”

“What?”

“JB was only two weeks old when this picture was taken; just before I left Earth to come to this meeting.”

“How can that be, you were on Hakim when a baby of that age would have been conceived. I may have had nothing to do with females in over 60 cycles but I know how long a pregnancy lasts.”

“When my parents found out that I had been captured by the Legion they went ahead and used my sperm sample to have a surrogate mother impregnated. They were afraid that I would never come home and they wanted a grandchild. I wasn’t really all that thrilled about the idea when I got home but from the moment I first held him I can’t imagine not having him in my life.”

“You have a handsome family Taylor.”

“The next picture is of my grandfather Brian and JB.”

“It’s a lovely picture as well. Where did you come up with the name Justin, the Brian part is obvious?”

“Justin is the name of an old family friend I just recently met.”

“Thank you for the gift Taylor.”

“It was nothing High General, when you come to Earth I will be able to show you how to put more pictures into it; you’ll be able to change the generic ones for more personalized photos. I’ll see you later at the preliminary meetings. I’m the military aide to the Director of Planetary Security. The Powers that   
Be seem to think my little sojourn on Hakim qualifies me for that position, at least for these talks.”

“Yes I’ll see you then and thanks again for the pictures, I look forward to meeting little JB.”

***

Finally the participants from both sides meet in the designated site for the negotiations. 

“I’m Colonel Taylor Peterson, since I know the leaders of both delegations I’ll do the introductions.

High General TinTay of the Legion of Orkon this is Brian Kinney the Director of Planetary Security of the United Planet of Earth.”

“High General I hope that we’ll be able to come to a fair and equitable treaty to solve the problems between our peoples.”

“Director Kinney my objectives are the same. This is General ToPher my second in command. Are the translator devices working properly?”

“Yes High General; I understand what you are saying perfectly.”

“Then Mr. Director we had better start working on the details of this treaty so that the bureaucrats can do the bureaucratic job of making a treaty that can be signed by both sides.”

***

“Mr. Director I have told you that the Empire and The Legion are very tradition bound. There are some traditions that simply can’t be broken.”

“What tradition is it this time, High General?”

“The rebirth process is nothing but tradition upon tradition. For over a thousand cycles The Legion has replenished its numbers through rebirths. This is simply something we’ll not compromise on.”

“Your zygotes have to be stolen from their home planet?”

“That’s the tradition of The Legion. To continually get zygotes from the same planet, even if they volunteer, would skew the makeup of The Legion.”

“Why does that matter, and don’t tell me it is because of tradition?”

“It is tradition but it’s also practical. The Legion stays fluid in its makeup. For a while The Legion is composed mostly of the latest rebirth but as time passes the numbers of that rebirth decrease and then a new rebirth is sanctioned and the majority of the Legionarys are of a new race. At this point in time there are members of 10 rebirths in The Legion, though over half of the Legionarys are of the first rebirth of TinTay. There is one member of the fourth rebirth of JayeMar who has been of the Legion for over 100 cycles. If we recruited from one planet for multiple rebirths then The Legionarys would eventually become almost totally of one race, then the Empire would fear that The Legion would become loyal to that race instead of the Empire.”

“What if you were to recruit from a different planet for each rebirth instead of raiding?”

“That’s a possibility that we’ll have to think about. We can agree to make sure that The Horab never raid Dirt or any Dirt protected planet again.”

“That’s acceptable to us but you should inform the Horab that we’ll shoot them on sight in any stellar system that we claim, either as a colony or ally.”

“That’s acceptable to The Legion.”

“The people of Earth are going to demand something from the Empire and the Legion to pay for the horrors of The Raid.”

“As the representative of The Legion I’m prepared to serve as the scapegoat if that’s necessary.”

“Lord General you know that the Emperor will not stand for any such action on your part.”

“General ToPher remember your position.”

“Yes Lord General, pardon me Mr. Director.”

“High General it would serve no purpose for you to be punished in any way. There’s no way that you’re to blame for The Raid. Is there anyone who would’ve had some say in authorizing The Raid?”

“No, those Legionarys are long dead and besides The Legion has no control on what planet The Horab raid for a rebirth. You’ve punished The Horab for their part in The Raid probably more than you think.”

“What do you mean by that comment High General?”

“According to Imperial Intelligence you destroyed over half of The Horab fleet when they raided you a few of your years ago.”

“Since there are very few people still alive who had a direct connection to any of The Stolen a possible solution might be for the Legion to build monuments to the members of The Stolen in each of The Twelve. Then the citizens of those cities, and Earth in general, will know what happened to their sons. Would that be possible?”

“Certainly. but we don’t have any records for those zygotes that died before they arrived at the rebirth center or those that were aborted.”

“That’s just a detail that can be worked out by the bureaucrats.”

***

“Grandfather it has been three days and you haven’t called him Justin even once. You haven’t made any effort to get to know him again. What’s the matter, you’ve wanted to be with him again for over 50 years now you have the chance and you do nothing.”

“Taylor I told you when we first arrived that I was here as the Director of Planetary Security. High General TinTay is here in his official capacity. We’re here to negotiate a treaty and that’s what’s happening. 

Taylor you have to get past this need for me to get back with Justin, I have. I loved Justin Taylor but we are dealing with High General TinTay. After the official signing of the treaty on Earth and then on Orkon I’ll never see the High General again. Life goes on Taylor and we have to live with what life deals us. When the Horab took Justin away from me all those years ago our chance to be a couple was taken with him. I’m glad that he has prospered and he’s still a beautiful man but that’s as far as it’s ever going to go.”

***

“Lord General the negotiations have gone well don’t you think?”

“Yes General ToPher, both sides have to be happy with what we’ve accomplished. Once the treaty is officially signed and the hostilities are over then we can start working together and both sides will benefit from this new status.”

“Colonel Taylor Peterson played his hand well, it’s too bad that he was too old to have been taken into the first rebirth of TinTay. He would’ve made a great Legionary. Tinny you did a great job of not reacting to finding out that your Brian was the Director.”

“That had to have been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life but I had no choice. I’m here for The Legion and Empire not me. I might want Brian as much as I ever have but it isn’t going to happen, I don’t even know if he recognized me, he certainly didn’t indicate anything.”

“He knew who you were Tinny, have no doubt about that. We have to remember that over 60 cycles have passed since the night we were captured by the Horab. He’s moved on with his life just like you moved on with your life. I know that it hurt you that he didn’t acknowledge you but I imagine it hurt him as well that you didn’t acknowledge him either. Once the treaty has been signed then you never have to see him again.”

“I knew I was right to bring you with me Tophy. If you weren’t here I might go crawling to see him one last time. I’m the High General of The Legion and that would be beneath my dignity and the honor of The Legion. You’re right once the treaties are signed I’ll never have to see Brian again and hopefully I’ll be able to finally forget him. Taylor did play his hand well but it was so obvious how upset he was that neither Brian nor I went along with his plan. He’s still young he’ll get better as he ages. Naming his son after me was a slick move as well.”

“To be fair Tinny I think that was done honorably. Colonel Taylor Peterson genuinely likes you and naming his son was just what he said, naming him after an old family friend. He’ll eventually come to terms with the fact that you’re no longer Justin Taylor and don‘t want to be with his grandfather anymore.”

***

“General ToPher I’m glad that I was able to find you before you left.”

“What can I do for you Colonel Taylor Peterson?”

“My Grandfather and the High General spent hours together and neither one of them indicated that they knew who the other one was.”

“They were negotiating a treaty; what were you expecting to happen?”

“I expected that Brian and Justin would talk to each other about their feelings for each other.”

“There was no Justin here Colonel Taylor Peterson. Justin Taylor died when TinTay was born a Legionary.”

“General ToPher you must remember something that we can use to get them to admit that they love each other and want to get back together as a couple.”

“Colonel Taylor Peterson you must think that I want TinTay and your grandfather to get back together as a couple.

Taylor is dumbstruck by the General’s comment.


	15. The General and The Director

May 25 2052

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, pictures from the day of The Raid, and then the show begins.

“This is Victor Grazzi of the Tierra Broadcasting Company, live from Broadcast Central in Canberra. 

We at TBC and every other broadcast network on Earth have worked together to provide this special report about the most important picture seen in decades. Every broadcast network is showing this report simultaneously and it will be repeated every four hours until everyone on the planet has had a chance to see it in local prime time. 

In this special report we’ll attempt to explain the event captured by the picture that everyone on the planet has seen by now. The picture in question was on the front page of every daily newspaper on Earth. It was the lead story on every news show on the planet as well. It has been on the cover of every magazine published in the last week.”

The picture is shown with Victor Grazzi continuing to speak. 

“Earth wants to know, what happened to cause the event in question to occur? Why are Director of Planetary Security Brian Kinney and High General TinTay of the Orkon Legion in a passionate embrace? Why are these supposed foes kissing like their lives depend on it? Was the peace treaty signed only a few hours before the event in question so good that it had to be sealed with a kiss?”

The picture fades away and Victor Grazzi is again shown while a picture of the Presidential Palace appears in the background. 

“A week ago tonight, at the Presidential Palace in Lisbon, dignitaries from Earth‘s government and the Orkon Empire were present for the official signing of the peace treaty. After the signing ceremony, an official reception was held in the Grand Hall of the Presidential Palace hosted by President Vasily Ostrov .”

Pictures of the officials present at the treaty signing come onto the screen. Pictures of the Grand Hall, empty and filled with people are shown.

“According to people present, none of the Legion delegation, though this wasn’t true of the other Empire citizens, joined in the reception activities. The Legionarys just stood off to the side and watched what was going on. Finally High General TinTay spoke to his officers and they began to mix with other participants. 

A guest at the gala, who has an Imperial translator device implanted in his ear, told one of our reporters that the High General told his men that it was OK to talk to females as long as they didn’t fall in love with them. While the Legion officers did talk to women, when the women iniated the conversation, there wasn‘t a single instance of a Legion officer seeking out a woman during the festivities. 

Guests have told me that some of the younger officers did some serious flirting with men at the reception. In at least one case the Legionary and his companion retired to a more private room for consultations.”

A split screen shot of Director Kinney and the High General comes on screen. Both men are staring off into space but they’re obviously in the Grand Hall.

“Those present have told me that Director Kinney and High General TinTay seemed to be avoiding each other during the reception. One woman told me that while the two stayed on opposite sides of the hall they did seem to be looking at the other anytime she happened to look at them though neither would actually make eye contact with his counterpart. 

Approximately two hours into the reception Director Kinney walked over to the High General, took him by the hand, led him to the middle of the room, and then the two started to dance which ended with the aforementioned embrace and kiss. 

The two then just ran off hand in hand and haven’t been seen in the week since the reception occurred. People were amazed that two men of their advanced ages looked like a pair of teenagers as they ran off of the dance floor. 

No one in the Earth government or the Orkon delegation seems to be overly concerned by their absence; so we assume that they’ve been in contact with their respective organizations.”

‘The Kiss’ appears on the screen again and then dissolves into a picture of the two men exiting the ballroom through a side door.

“While we’ve found out what caused this amazing event and while I would like to claim that we did so after some amazing journalistic research; I have to admit that we figured it out due to a comment made by Director Kinney that was overheard by a waiter at the reception. Using that comment it wasn‘t hard to figure out the truth of the matter and then to find out the details that we’re going to tell you on tonight‘s special edition. I have to warn you that the comment is very graphic and not suitable for younger ears. 

After these words from our sponsors we’ll find out the misconception the people of the Earth have lived with for over 50 years.”

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, and more pictures from The Raid.

Three minutes of commercials including one promoting the colonization of the planet Hadrian.

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, clips from videos of Director Kinney over the years, demanding revenge for The Stolen.

“Welcome back to our special report on “The Kiss”. As was reported in our earlier segment the people of Earth were stunned to see a picture of Director Kinney and High General TinTay locked in a passionate kiss and embrace. We here at TBC have interviewed the people in the know and have figured out what led to this amazing event. 

When Director Kinney and High General TinTay rushed out of the hall after “The Kiss” they stopped just outside of the door where a waiter overheard Director Kinney tell the High General the following comment.”

A video of a waiter talking to a newsman now plays in the background of the screen.

“We have 50 years of fucking to make up for and I intend to make a significant start tonight.”

“Luckily one our producers thought to ask the wait staff if they had heard anything at the reception. When the producer heard about Director Kinney’s comment one of those proverbial lights went off over her head. She immediately checked with the Department of Planetary Security and found the web address for the age-updated pictures of The Stolen. As we go to break we’ll show some pictures of The Stolen both from when The Raid occurred and how they would look today.”

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, then two minutes of a slideshow of pictures of The Stolen both from 2001 and age updated.

***  
Three minutes of commercials including one promoting the colonization of the planet Lucille.

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, pictures from the fight with the Horab from two years earlier.

“Welcome back to “The Kiss” a TBC special report. Following her instincts our producer started checking the age updated pictures of The Stolen and found that every member of High General TinTay’s staff over the age of 60 appears to be a member of The Stolen though none of them actually look their official age. 

High General TinTay and General ToPher, the two highest-ranking officers of the Legion, appear to be Justin Taylor and Christopher Hobbes of Pittsburgh USA. Our producer remembered that Director Kinney was formerly a resident of Pittsburgh and another light bulb went off above her head.”

Pictures of Justin Taylor, Christopher Hobbes, General ToPher, and High General TinTay start showing in the background of the screen. 

“Looking at archived stories about the night of The Raid she found an interesting story that probably would’ve been a big story if The Raid hadn’t happened. The site raided by the Horab, in Pittsburgh, all of those years ago was the Senior Prom of the Saint James Academy. The story mentioned how the witness had been amazed when a male classmate had danced with an older man less than an hour before the attack of the Horab. This dance had been the talk of the teenagers until the Horab attack began. 

Our staff went to Pittsburgh where they found several women who had been at the Saint James Prom the night of The Raid. Several of the women interviewed remembered the dance of the two males and identified them as Justin Taylor and some old guy. When they were shown a picture of Brian Kinney from 2001 all of them agreed that he was the old guy. 

So there it is, The Kiss was nothing more than a continuation of what happened 51 years ago at the Saint James Prom. Brian Kinney, then 30, and Justin Taylor, then 18, were lovers torn apart by the Horab slave raid. 

Brian Kinney led the effort to gain revenge for The Raid, sponsored by the Legion, and Justin Taylor was able to rise to the highest rank of the Legion. For 51 years the people of Earth have hungered for revenge for something that turns out to not be what we were led to believe it was. The Stolen were not taken as sexual slaves as we were told but to become members of the Legion. Will this make a difference; only time will tell.”

A video of one of Director Kinney’s calls for revenge for The Stolen is shown.

A split screen of pictures of Donna and Daphne from 2001 fades in to view on the screen.

“As we all know most of the information about the reasons for The Raid came from Donna and Daphne. These were the only women who had been used by the Horab as rude translators to survive the ordeal. While most of the information gained from them before they died proved to be reliable; the idea that The Raid was for sexual slaves evidently wasn’t as valid. After the break we’ll discuss ‘The Kiss’ with people in the know.”

The pictures change to those of Donna and Daphne just before each died.

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, and pictures from the attack on the Legion convoy.

***

3 minutes of commercials including one on the colonization of the planet Sharon.

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, and pictures from the negotiations of the peace treaty.

“Welcome back to this special broadcast on TBC of ‘The Kiss‘. In our earlier segments we showed you the facts behind the conclusion of our staff that The Stolen became members of the Legion and in fact have risen to the very highest ranks of that organization. 

We also showed that Director Kinney and High General TinTay have a history together from before The Raid. The next step in our search for explanations was to travel to Pittsburgh and interview anyone connected to Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor still alive.”

Pictures of Pittsburgh both from 2001and the present including the damage done during The Raid are shown on the screen.

“Unfortunately there were very few leads. We could find no connections to Director Kinney’s family, other than his biological son, Augustus Brian Peterson-Marcus and his grandson Colonel Taylor Peterson. 

Director Kinney’s mother, his sister and her sons were killed in the fighting during The Raid; one of the Horab fighters fell into their house when it was shot down. This fact added to the abduction of his lover might explain why Director Kinney has led the charge for revenge against the Legion and Empire.”

Pictures of Director Kinney’s family and the ruins of his sister’s house are shown.

The screen fades to black and then brightens to a picture of a young family including an obviously pregnant woman.

“Justin Taylor’s family knew little of him. His parents died 10 and 15 years ago. His sister Molly died during the birth of her third child in 2018. Her first two children were too young to remember anything she might have told them about her brother. Her husband never met Justin Taylor and has forgotten anything his first wife might have told him about her brother.”

“Our producer went to the home of Director Kinney’s son, Augustus Marcus-Peterson, PhD. Dr. Marcus-Peterson refused to be interviewed and told our producer that he had had very little contact with his father during his life and certainly knew nothing about his relationship with Justin Taylor let alone High General TinTay.”

A picture of Gus Marcus-Peterson from his college graduation, with the date of the picture, is now shown in the background.

“I personally talked to Colonel Taylor Peterson, grandson of the Director and a hero of Operation Revenge. Colonel Peterson led the squadron that destroyed a Legion convoy at the very beginning of the war. He was captured by the Legion and then was sent back to Earth to inform the authorities that the Empire wanted to discuss a peace treaty.”

A slide show of pictures of the Colonel is shown which fades into a taped conversation between correspondent Victor Grazzi and Colonel Peterson.

“Colonel Peterson, thank you for consenting to talk to me today.”

“It’s no problem Victor. I’ll tell you what I know since you’ve figured out the part that was being kept secret.”

“Just when did you figure out that the High General was actually Justin Taylor?”

“I didn’t know for sure until I returned to Earth and was able to look at the age modified pictures of The Stolen from Pittsburgh. I suspected the truth but I didn’t know for sure until I saw that computer modified picture.”

Pictures of Justin Taylor and High General TinTay play behind the two men.

“What caused you to suspect the truth?”

“When I was brought to the High Council of the Legion I noticed that many of the members looked very human to me. Others of the council and all of the honor guard were obviously non-human while all were humanoid. 

My appearance seemed to throw the High General off and he soon called the meeting to a close. Later that day the High General and General ToPher met with me in my quarters. I asked them if they were of The Stolen and they didn’t know what I was talking about. They did tell me that every Legionary in history had been stolen from their birth planet. That’s how the Legion replenishes its numbers. It’s called a rebirth and is a very tradition controlled process. 

Somewhere during the discussion the High General started talking in English even though he didn’t seem to notice. General ToPher did notice and pointed it out to the High General; they then actually started the interrogation, which I thought was very inept. I found out later that they figured out when I was lying, telling the truth or bending the truth. 

The two are very experienced soldiers and diplomats and even though our attack had thrown them for a loss they never lost control of the situation. They have hundreds of years of history of space travel and warfare and knew that Earth could never beat them though we could cause them a lot of pain and trouble. 

I knew that they were part of The Stolen the second High General TinTay started speaking in English. I began to suspect that he was my grandfather’s long lost lover from comments he made; but I didn’t know for sure until I saw that picture.”

Pictures of Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor from earlier days are shown.

“I then started to try to convince my grandfather that he should get back with Justin but he never gave me any indication that he would even try. Any time I would start pushing him he would tell me to back off. That his job was to look out for the best interests of the people of Earth not the interests of Brian Kinney. All my life I had heard about his love for Justin and wanting him back in his life but now that it seemed that it was possible for them to be together he no longer thought it was possible. I even went so far as to name my son Justin Brian in an attempt to push them together.”

A picture of the Colonel and a small infant is shown, followed by a 4-generation picture of the Colonel’s family.

“When we met with the Empire delegation, on that uninhabited planet, I tried to get the High General to acknowledge who he was and that he still wanted to be with my grandfather. I had no more luck with High General TinTay than I did with my grandfather. His only goal was to get the best possible treaty for the Empire. I was reasonably sure that he’d figured out that I knew that he was Justin Taylor but he never admitted it to me. 

Then during the entire time of the negotiations neither my grandfather nor the High General indicated that they knew who the other one was. They hammered out a treaty that’s fair to both sides but they left the planet without saying a word to indicate that they’d ever met before in their lives. I even spoke with General ToPher to see if he knew of anything we could do to get the two back together. His answer basically said that he had no desire to get them back together as a couple.”

Pictures of General ToPher and Christopher Hobbes are shown.

“I was just as surprised as anyone else when my grandfather walked over to the High General and started dancing. As a gay man I can tell you that was one romantic dance and kiss. I’ve heard nothing from my grandfather and so I’ve no idea where they are. I just hope that they’re having a wonderful time and are making up for the 51 years that they were apart. I’ve no idea why my grandfather suddenly changed his mind about getting back with Justin or why TinTay went along with him. I just know that they love each other, always have and always will.”

‘The Kiss’ returns to the screen.

“Grandfather, High General TinTay, in case you see this I want you both to know how happy I am that you’re finally back together where you belong.”

The tape ends and is followed by 30 seconds of bombastic music, fancy graphics, and pictures of ToPher, TinTay, Colonel Peterson, and Director Kinney.

“There you have the viewpoint of Director Kinney’s family. In our next segment we will hear from the Legion.”

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, and pictures of various Legionarys and Legion ships, and Empire planets take center screen.

***

3 minutes of commercials including one about the colonization of the planet Mindy.

Bombastic music, fancy graphics, and more pictures of Legion and Empire topics.

“Welcome back to our special report on ‘The Kiss’. General ToPher, second in command of the Legion, was good enough to consent to a taped interview.”

30 seconds of bombastic music and graphics fading to the taped interview.

General ToPher’s comments are translated since he speaks in Galachh.

“Thank you General ToPher or should I say Christopher Hobbes for granting this interview.”

“I wouldn’t answer to Christopher Hobbs since that individual died over 60 cycles ago when I was born into The Legion as ToPher.”

“Sorry General, I suppose that is something that we of Earth will have to get used to. The Stolen don’t think of themselves as the boys that we remember being stolen from their homes and loved ones.”

“Well Victor that does vary from Legionary to Legionary. Some remember more of their pre-Legion lives than others. Time also plays its part, I imagine that if this situation had occurred 30 or 40 cycles ago we would remember more than we do today. I personally remember very little about my life before the night The Horab raided Dirt.”

“What the people of Earth are interested in at this point in time is the relationship between Director Kinney and High General TinTay. What can you tell us about this relationship and how it ended up the way it did with ‘The Kiss’?

“I have to tell this my way, that’s simply the way I am Victor. Pardon me if it isn’t the way you want it told.”

“That’s no problem General, we’re interested in what has happened and your input is greatly valued.”

Pictures of Justin Taylor and Christopher Hobbes from the Saint James Academy 2001 yearbook are shown in the background of the screen.

“TinTay and I weren’t friends before we were stolen away from Dirt, we were just school acquaintances. 

Then the Horab raided Pittsburgh and our lives changed completely. We no longer had to live our lives according to the rules that we had grown up with here on Dirt. During The Raid TinTay, I mean Justin, was incapacitated by the Horab and I held him in my arms while he was unconscious. We had no idea what was going to happen to us and I just felt comfortable holding him. I remember that I would’ve never dared to hold him like that before we were captured though I don’t really remember why. When he finally woke up he gave me one of his stellar smiles and I’ve loved him ever since. 

You have to realize that the way we of The Legion live is very different than how you live here on Dirt or even how people live on the Empire planets. TinTay was the first of the second rebirth of Gkolath to be born a Legionary and he chose me to be his first sponsored baby. I was so thrilled because we were finally able to be together sexually. Over the cycles we’ve both sponsored many babies and have had many other lovers. But I’ve always felt that TinTay was my true love but I was never his true love. From the moment he woke up TinTay always remembered his Brian from before the Horab took us. He never felt that he would see his Brian again and made the most of his career and life in The Legion. 

When Colonel Taylor Peterson led the attack that destroyed a Legion convoy and was subsequently captured it became obvious to TinTay that he might meet Brian again since he knew the instant that he saw the Colonel that he was a descendent of the man. During the interrogation of Colonel Peterson the High General determined that his Brian was still alive and more importantly to TinTay that he had considered Justin Taylor to be his lover. 

The High General is an amazing man and soldier but I have never seen him so indecisive once he figured this out. While he’d always dreamed of someday getting back with his Brian he knew that would never happen. Then it became possible and he didn’t know what to do. He knew that he had to what was best for The Legion even if that wasn’t what was best for TinTay. 

Colonel Peterson kept secret from us that his grandfather was the Director in hopes that when TinTay found out who he was dealing with it would give the Director an advantage in the negotiations. It didn’t work the way the Colonel hoped. 

The Colonel did everything he could to push the Director and TinTay back together as a couple and he was very frustrated that neither one acknowledged who the other one was when they met to negotiate the peace treaty. Colonel Peterson even went so far as to name his newborn son after the two in hopes that would push them together. 

I know that the Colonel doesn’t know the High General as well as he thought he did and evidently he didn’t know his grandfather as well either. In hindsight both were so afraid of what would happen that neither was willing to take a chance. I say this knowing how brave High General TinTay is. Colonel Peterson even asked me if I knew anything that he could do to get the two back together as a couple. I told him that the question assumed that I wanted them to get back together. On a very selfish note I thought that TinTay was finally over his obsession with the memory of his Brian and that he would finally be able to commit to me. 

When we finally got back to Hakim I found out how wrong my assumption had been. TinTay was so miserable that he was almost a different man. He believed that he had finally lost the love of his life for good. I think that he lost all interest in sex, which for most Legionarys and TinTay in particular is an amazing fact. While I had hoped that the two of us could be a couple for the remainder of our lives it soon became obvious that it wasn’t going to happen. I had promised TinTay that I would look out for his best interests and I decided that Director Kinney was in his best interests even if the two of them denied it to themselves. 

I then talked with the two other members of the second rebirth of Gkolath from Pittsburgh, still alive; to see if we could remember anything from the night we were captured by the Horab that would help in my quest to get TinTay back with his Brian. 

From what you call ‘The Kiss’ I guess I was successful. It was painful to see the two of them purposefully avoiding each other at the reception yet both of them couldn’t keep from staring at the other one all night long. Finally my plan started and the success of it startled me and I’m considered a tactical genius by the general staff of The Legion. 

When Director Kinney moved across the room to TinTay and took him by the hand I remembered as clear as daylight when the same thing happened at our Prom all of those cycles ago. As much as I love TinTay and have enjoyed his love over the cycles; my little part in getting the two of them back together has to rank as one of my greatest achievements.”

‘The Kiss’ again takes center screen.

“What exactly did you do?”

“That is something that TinTay and his Brian will have to tell you.”

“Then you know where the two of them are today?”

“While I don’t know where they are I know what they’re doing.”

“What’s that?”

“Let’s see if I remember the words. 

The translator’s words stop and the following is in the voice of the General.

High General TinTay has taken a leave of absence; so that he can enjoy a long overdue Honeymoon with the love of his life Director Brian Kinney.”

“Thank you for your time General ToPher.”

Bombastic music and fancy graphics fade away to Victor Grazzi.

“People of Earth you now know the truth of ‘The Kiss’; Director Kinney and High General TinTay are long lost lovers from before The Raid who have finally found each other. They’re off somewhere making up for over 50 years of separation.”

Bombastic music and fancy graphics fade away to Victor Grazzi.

“This has been a special report by TBC and every other broadcast network on the planet to explain ‘The Kiss’. 

To the people of Earth thank you and good-bye. 

 

THE END

 

EPILOGUE

 

Somewhere in the universe where they can’t be found Brian and Justin lie entwined in each other’s arms on a bed of soft grass. Clothes are scattered wherever they fell when they were discarded. If one could see emotions then the viewer would be blinded by the love emanating from the two men.

“Brian I can’t believe that I was going to walk out of your life that night.”

“Well Justin, or should I say TinTay? I was going to do the exact same thing.”

“All the Universe knows me as TinTay; I want you to call me Justin.”

“Well Justin when that corny old song started playing I couldn’t control myself. It brought back such strong memories that the next thing I knew I had you in my arms and we were dancing just like we did at your Prom.”

“I had the same reaction Brian, for a corny old song it’s very powerful. Just know that I’ll always save the last dance for you.”

“I imagine that Taylor’s thrilled that we ran away together. Ever since he came back to Earth he’s been pushing me to do everything possible to get back with you. I kept telling him that I had to do what was right for the people of Earth and not worry about was right for Brian Kinney. When I didn’t acknowledge whom you were when we met on that planet, to start the treaty negotiations, I thought he was going to disown me.”

“Well Brian he tried everything he could with me as well; including naming his son after the two of us. 

When I first saw him on Hakim I though that he was you, he couldn’t look more like you did that first night I saw you outside of Babylon. 

I thought that he was going to explode with impatience when I wouldn’t acknowledge who you were. He even asked ToPher if there was anything they could do to get us back together. I’m glad that he asked ToPher instead of Mikey. My very best friend in the universe really wants what’s best for me and he knows that’s you. 

I suppose we should send Taylor a message so that he can know for sure that we’re together. You have been very lucky with your family.”

“I have been lucky with Taylor but Gus barely speaks to me.”

“Well when we go back we’ll have to pay him a visit and make things right between you two.”

“Justin I sent the President my resignation before we left Europe, I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Can you leave your post as High General?”

“No Brian, I can’t resign as High General, the position is for life. But there’s an old tradition that we can use so that we can be together for the rest of our lives even though you aren’t of The Legion. Few High Generals have used it in the last 100 cycles but it’s still a valid tradition.”

“Well what’s this old tradition? ”

“Brian Kinney would you be my concubine?” said with a smile that lights up the universe.


End file.
